I don't understand what happens after they come out of the water bath. Does a sheet pan go on top of the loaf pans? I can't make that make sense.

tyoung667
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Homemade Spam
Recipe question for: Homemade Spam

8 Comments

tyoung667
tyoung667 February 5, 2022
Ok, I'm an idiot. The loaf itself is higher than the top of the loaf pan so the sheet pan creates a nice rectangular Spam block. Duh. thanks all.
 
Romel B.
Romel B. February 4, 2022
Hey! So when the spam come out of the oven you're gonna wanna take them out the water bath (keeping them in the loaf pan you cooked them in, Leaving the foil on them) Place them on a sheet tray and grab another sheet try to put on top of the spam loafs, place some heavy objects on top and let them cool to room temp about 30 mins to 1 hour. Then make space in your fridge to place the spam ( sheet tray, cans and all) and let set over night about 10-12 hours.

Does that make sense? Let me know if your still having trouble!
 
tyoung667
tyoung667 February 4, 2022
Yes and no. I picture pressing on the spam loves themselves to make them more dense. That makes sense to me, though maybe it shouldn't, and that's not what you're saying . I don't understand what a sheet tray on top of the loaf pans *does* exactly; keep them warm(er) longer or...something...? Sorry for being dense but I really want this to work, I'm really excited about it. Spam and eggs!?!! It's been years.
 
Romel B.
Romel B. February 4, 2022
No worries! It sets them to the perfect shape and keeps them in they're juices. When you cook them you'll see that they puff up a bit. Try giving it a go when you're cooking it. Do 2 pressed and 2 not. if you're curious You'll see the difference.
 
Dr. D.
Dr. D. February 6, 2022
Seems a critical piece of information is missing here. For compression *in the pan* to work, the meat mixture has to heap up over the top, even just a little, otherwise there’s nothing to compress. Unless, of course, you’d like to compress your loaf pans. 🤣

If the loaves don’t heap, one could either skip the compression step, or make little rectangular followers to fit in the pans over the loaves and compress that way.
 
Lori T.
Lori T. February 3, 2022
Hate to be disagreeable here, but the meat gets left in the loaf pans while it is being compressed. You remove the loaf pans from the hot water bath after they finish baking and put them on a dry baking sheet. Then you top that off with another baking sheet on top of the loaf pans, add your weights and let it cool, then refrigerate. If you remove the meat from the pans before they compress and chill, what you end up with is a squashed meatloaf. I have made a version of this for some years now, and that's how it works best.
 
HalfPint
HalfPint February 3, 2022
Basically, the spam loaves are to be compressed between 2 sheet pan as they cool. So, you would have to take the loaves out of the baking pans to accomplish this. The directions seem to be missing this step. Because it would make no sense to keep them in the pans and cover them with another sheet pan.
 
tyoung667
tyoung667 February 3, 2022
That's what I thought but after that it says "then refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours before taking them out of the loaf pans". So confused.
 
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