How To Fix Overly Salty Canned Spam

Canned Spam is a lot of things; convenient, tasty, and most of the time, downright salty. And while the salt adds more flavor to this popular canned meat and acts as a preservative, its presence often threatens to overpower recipes that are made with it. In some cases, it makes them so salty, it's as if you're chewing on a salt lick every time you make a Spam sandwich. 

Fortunately, there are some remedies for this. Some home gourmands have tried soaking Spam in water, but with mixed effects. It even falls apart a bit in some instances when it gets this treatment, though dunking it in water can lessen the effects of the salt a bit. However, parboiling, the act of boiling something until it's just this side of completely cooked, works better at mitigating the effects of overly salty Spam. The meat only needs to sit in the hot, bubbling water for a few minutes. Afterward, you can fry the Spam and use it in your fried rice, sushi rolls, or the popular Hawaiian snack that is Spam musubi. It can also be a pork substitute for an amazing Denver omelet sandwich. 

In all actuality, the salt in Spam doesn't have to be a bad thing. You may just need a change of perspective. Instead of trying to reduce the amount of sodium in the meat, embrace the saltiness by slicing it into ultra-thin bacon-like strips. Fry it up and use it in a BLT sandwich in place of the bacon. It'll still have a strong salty taste. However, given how salty bacon is, Spam is a good substitute for the cured meat, particularly if you use maple-flavored Spam. You get pretty close to the real thing in terms of taste and texture if you cook Spam this way.

You can also use Spam to flavor soups, stews, and casseroles that call for salt to be added to the dish. Such recipes are easy ways to take Spam to the next level. In these cases, wait to add salt to the dish until after you've tossed the Spam in and have allowed the recipe to cook for a bit with the meat in it. Many times, the Spam replaces the salt altogether. Add other herbs and spices into the recipe as usual. Some dishes where this cooking hack would be particularly successful include au gratin or scalloped potatoes with ham (using Spam as a substitute for ham), as well as a Spam and potato soup because starches like potatoes and rice are good at soaking up the meat's excess salt.

Lastly, when all else fails, just opt for reduced-sodium Spam. It comes with about 25% less salt than the regular version, allowing you to skip the boiling and frying stage, and go straight into Spam-wich making.