SOS!!!! Chipped Beef on Toast: A Forgotten Food

Well, it has been awhile since my last post.  Busy I guess.

My late father, a WWII veteran, was fond of occasionally making chipped beef on toast a/k/a Shit on a Shingle or SOS.  Historically served for breakfast, we had it for dinner and it makes a fine entre for any of your three meals. We loved the stuff  in spite of its more colorful name or maybe, as kids, we liked it because of its name.  Despite its military upbringing and possibly origin, SOS is a fine meal of smoked, dried and salted beef combined with Bechamel sauce---one of our esteemed Mother sauces. (Recipe here.) The first recorded recipe for SOS can be found in an Army cookbook written in 1910.   Now, mind you, good ole Pops (and every Army Cooky since 1910) probably had no idea that they were preparing a sauce as regal as the lofty and highly regarded Bechamel. Rather, my father simply referred to it as "white sauce."  Dad would mix milk, butter and flour into a roux for about 15 minutes and once heated would pour in the chipped beef.  Once sufficently warmed up, it would be laddled onto buttered toast and served with a heavy dose of black pepper.   Now some variations are available:  Some go with  a dash or two of hot pepper sauce; a sprinkle of cayenne pepper or a splash of Worcestershire sauce; some prefer an English muffin or a southern biscuit.

By now you are probably asking "what is 'chipped' beef?"  Usually made from the eye of round, it is slightly salted, dried and smoked beef similar to braseola.  It is sliced very thinly (chipped) and sold in bags or jars not requiring refrigeration. Now finding the chipped beef is not as easy as it once was.  It was once readily available in most supermarkets in bags or in small jars but is getting  harder to find.  Rumor has it that Walmart occassionally sells Esskay brand; Publix and Kroger may also sell Hormel's  version. Stouffers also sells a frozen version complete with sauce and chipped beef---just heat and serve.  Personally I have not gone down that road as I find whisking up a Bechamel to be child's play and I am confident that mine is better than the one fabricated by the food production  gurus at Stouffer's. Go ahead, Beetle Bailey fans, give it a try.