# This is food?, I don't think so! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 10, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460 "2004-07-10T18:44:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/21 "2004-07-11T20:27:30Z")
If you eat any kind of ground meat product, whether it be potted ham or a nice sausage, you’re possibly going to be eating some questionable things. If it tastes good, it tastes good and unless something’s toxic, it’s best just not to think about what’s in it. ---
**Author:** ![ILovCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e99b99/32.png) [@ILovCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILovCoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/22 "2004-07-11T22:32:19Z")
I seem to remember a saying that goes something like, “Never watch sausage or laws being made if you have a weak stomach. You really do not want to know what goes into the making of either.” ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/23 "2004-07-11T23:22:12Z")
Some of my friends and I once had a competition to see who could read the whole list of ingredients from a potted meat food product without giggling. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/24 "2004-07-12T03:33:57Z")
Believe me that the contents of SPAM, the king of potted meats, is worse! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/25 "2004-07-12T04:09:36Z")
> [@Tikki](#): > > Believe me that the contents of SPAM, the king of potted meats, is worse! **Cecil** [disagrees](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_229.html) > [@](#): > > It contains a mixture of ham and chopped pork shoulder. (Ham is the pig’s thigh; pork is everything else.) Ham is Hormel’s top-of-the-line product, and Spam was created in 1937 partly to use up what was left of the pig after the ham had been removed. But only the wholesome parts. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/26 "2004-07-12T06:40:08Z")
Potted meat = puree of Lips and Assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/27 "2004-07-12T06:59:36Z")
> [@Bad News Baboon](#): > > Potted meat = puree of Lips and Assholes. Lttle kids ought-not to tawlk lIk-dat!. uh-humm, dem, potted meat products are a little loud…[/swing blade] ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/28 "2004-07-12T15:02:32Z")
> [@Tikki](#): > > Believe me that the contents of SPAM, the king of potted meats, is worse! Nonsense. I have a can right here at my desk. (Running joke with a co-worker) Ingredients: Pork with Ham, Slat, Water, Modified Potato Starch, Sugar, Sodium Nitrate. I don’t particularly like the stuff, but I certainly don’t find the ingredient list to be frightening. And as for mechanically separated chicken, my response is “eh.” I trust machines to do all sorts of things. If they mince, grind, or separate my food, I’m not going to complain simply on that basis. But then again, I like a wide variety of food, ranging from cooked-from-scratch recipes handed down through many generations all the way to commercially processed, extruded, reconsituted, chemically laden junk food. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/29 "2004-07-12T15:03:48Z")
Salt! Salt! Not slat. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/30 "2004-07-12T15:35:06Z")
[P. Allen Smith] After potting your meat product make sure it gets plenty of sun, daily waterings and a weekly dose of a balanced fertilizer. This will help produce lush, green growth. [/P. Allen Smith] ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/31 "2004-07-12T15:45:20Z")
Whenever I hear the phrase “mechanically separated chicken” I picture a chicken carcass on a conveyor belt with all these little steel robot claws nipping bits off it while Raymond Scott’s _Powerhouse_ plays in the background. _Powerhouse_ is the “factory music” in old Warner Brothers’ _Looney Tunes_ cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/32 "2004-07-12T16:24:28Z")
“Mechanically deboned meat” was added to our vocabulary a few years back, due to advances in meat-munching machinery and advances in influence-buying techniques. There are at least three types of deboning machines: The water-blasting method mentioned in a previous post is one. Another is to cook the carcass and squish it in a press. What comes out the little holes is MDM. The third one is very similar to a rotary paint stripper. There’s a hub with sharp-edged flails. When you use the paint-strip version (I have one that chucks into a drill,) it knocks off loose paint chips, but it sometimes digs out little pieces of wood. The meat version knocks off bits of meat, but it also digs out some bone chips. Now, I admire the efficiency, but I don’t like bone chips in my food. ---
**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/33 "2004-07-12T16:41:30Z")
I love potted meat. Fixing to have it for lunch. Great stuff! Total depth of 460 feet? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/34 "2004-07-12T16:52:14Z")
> [@ILovCoffee](#): > > I seem to remember a saying that goes something like, “Never watch sausage or laws being made if you have a weak stomach. You really do not want to know what goes into the making of either.” “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.” ATTRIBUTION: Widely attributed to OTTO VON BISMARCK. ( [www.bartleby.com](http://www.bartleby.com) ) ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/35 "2004-07-12T18:00:27Z")
> [@mrklutz](#): > > Salt! Salt! Not slat. Sheesh. Heh, and I was going to say it’s the slat that makes it bad. 😃 My apologies to SPAM likers everywhere. It must have been some other potted meat that I read the ingredients and cringed. I plead a moment of Sometimer’s Disease\* for my previous post. \*Sometimes you remember (correctly) and sometimes you don’t. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460/36 "2004-07-12T18:23:52Z")
I prefer **Soylent Potted Meat** , myself. It’s become very popular in Chicago of late. Hmm. Curiously, at the same time the population started to drop. How odd. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-food-i-dont-think-so/254460.md?page=1)