Chipped beef recipes, including the military's famous SOS recipe - Click Americana (2024)

• Categories:1940s, 1950s, Retro dinner recipes, , Vintage meat recipes

• By The Click Americana Team
• Added or last updatedJanuary 30, 2020

Recipe for creamed chipped beef on toast (1954)

The Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey) May 6, 1954

This inexpensive dish of dried beef with white gravy is also known as “s**t on a shingle” (SOS), and was often served to troops during World War II. (There were multiple recipes for this dish, but this is one of the most basic.)

Ingredients

1 pound chipped beef
1/8 pound butter
3 tablespoons flour
1-1/2 cups half & half
1 egg
Pepper

Directions

Pick the beef over carefully, removing all stringy bits, and break it into small pieces. If beef is very salty, rinse it off. Don’t soak it!

Melt the butter in a skillet, and cook until the butter browns. Then add the chipped beef and stir it well until all bits are coated with the butter and lightly sauteed.

Next, sprinkle the flour over the beef with a sifter and stir well. Then add the cream and milk mixture, stir and cook until a rich, thick sauce is formed. Thickness may be controlled by adding more flour or more cream as desired. Season only with pepper, unless a taste indicates that a little more salt is needed.

Just before removing from the heat, break a raw egg into the mixture, stir it in thoroughly and cook just a bit more. Serve creamed chipped beefon toast.

Creamed chipped beef & more: Dried beef saves the day in an emergency (1944)

by Judith Wilson – Huntingdon Daily News (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) August 1, 1944

Handy to have around to meet the emergency of unexpected hungry guests, and practical for quick family meals too, is a jar of dried beef.

To prepare for cooking, remove excess salt by pouring hot water over dried or chipped beef and let stand for 10 minutes, then drain. Or simply rinse well with hot water.

Sauteing in a little butter will give you frizzled beef to serve with pancakes, waffles or rarebits. Crumbled frizzled beef adds that certain touch of flavor to vegetables, when it’s used as an ingredient like bacon. Or try it in deviled eggs, scrambled eggs or in a creamed dish.

Chipped beef creamed and flavored slightly with dried thyme makes a breakfast, luncheon or supper dish to remember.

Chipped beef also comes packaged in cellophane bags, or the butcher will slice it for you to order. If bought over the counter, dried beef from the round is the choicest. Once sliced, or after opening the jar, keep meat wrapped in waxed paper or in a tightly covered jar in a cool place.

In addition to dried beef, there is corned beef, if you are looking for a change from fresh beef. This is liked served with cabbage, or in corned beef hash, or as New England boiled dinner with potatoes, cabbage, turnips, beets and carrots.

To cook corned beef, wipe meat, tie securely in shape, cover with cold water and, bring to boiling point. Boil 5 minutes. Skim. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until tender.

If preferred, the potatoes, turnips and carrots may be cooked in the corned beef stock after meat has been removed and water skimmed. The cabbage and beets always should be cooked separately.

A gray color is no criterion as to the quality of corned beef. A brighter color merely indicates the use of saltpeter in the salting or corning process.

These tasty quick dishes made with dried beef are really economical.

Frizzled beef with corn in mushroom gravy

Ingredients

1 can corn (No. 2 size)
1 glass (about 2-1/2 ounces) dried beef
2 tablespoons drippings
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 can mushroom soup

Directions

Drain liquid form a can of corn. Set liquid aside for future use. Rinse dried beef well with hot water to remove excess salt. Melt drippings in a large frying pan. Add prepared mustard, then the corn, then the meat.

Cook slowly, stirring until corn and meat are a rich brown. Add liquid from corn; add soup. Stir until well-heated through, rich and creamy. Serve on toast. Serves 4 to 6 generously.

Creamed frizzled beef

Pull apart thinly-cut slices of beef. Rinse well with hot water. Put them in skillet to saute in bacon fat or butter. Saute slowly until crisp and browned. Push beef to one side of skillet. Add flour (1 tablespoon for each cup of milk used) and stir until blended with fat in skillet.

Add milk and cook, stirring constantly until sauce has thickened. Season with black pepper and simmer very slowly for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve on toast.

Hominy hash with dried chipped beef

Ingredients

1 cup diced onion
2 tablespoons butter
2-1/2 ounce jar dried beef
1/3 cup diced green pepper
3-1/2 cups drained hominy
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup salad dressing

Directions

Saute onion in butter over low heat until yellow. Cut dried beef in pieces, then add beef and green pepper, sauteing until beef is lightly browned. Add hominy and pepper, and cook 5 minutes longer, stirring frequently.

Mix together chili sauce and salad dressing. Add to hominy mixture. Reheat, stirring frequently. Serves 6.

• Categories: 1940s, 1950s, Retro dinner recipes, , Vintage meat recipes
• Tags: 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, beef, dinner, dinner recipes, mustard, rationing, recipes, side dishes, world war 2
• Added or last updatedJanuary 30, 2020
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