Chipped beef is a form of pressed, salted and driedbeef that has been sliced into thin pieces. Some makerssmoke the dried beef for more flavor. The modern product consists of small, thin, flexible leaves of partially driedbeef, generally sold compressed together in jars or flat in plastic packets. Theprocessed meat producerHormel once described it as "an air-dried product that is similar tobresaola, but not as tasty."[1]
Chipped beef on toast (or creamed chipped beef on toast) is adish comprising awhite sauce and rehydrated slivers of dried beef, served on toasted bread.[2] In the United States, chipped beef on toast was commonly served to service members of theUnited States Armed Forces fromWorld War I throughVietnam where it had a mixed reception. According toWe Are The Mighty, a recipe for chipped beef first appears in the1910 Manual for Army Cooks.[3]
Chipped beef was popular throughout the 1930s in the United States. After rehydrating the beef in boiling water, cooks served it creamed, in scrambled eggs, or as part of a sauce similar to the AmericanWelsh rabbit sauce.[4] Creamed chipped beef, served over toast, split biscuits, or waffles was considered a masculine, hearty meal. A more unusual application was put forward by the cooking radio show host John MacPherson, who on his showThe Mystery Chef aimed to produce affordable, gourmet meals. To produce such a meal with chipped beef, MacPherson combined it with pineapple, which by this time remained a popular ingredient.[5]
Another dish eaten in the 1930s using chipped beef was known as "Burning Bush", and was made with cream cheese inserted into an eggplant. A contemporary cookbook explained: "Inserted into a polished eggplant to resemble a bush in autumn foliage, these are too attractive not to be noticed."[6] Into the 1940s, Burning Bush was a popular dish served at cocktail parties.[7]
Creamed chipped beef fell from popularity after World War II, where American troops had grown sick of it, nicknaming it "SOS" - "Shit on a Shingle").[8][a] Shingle had become a term for slices of toast around 1935 in the US army, becoming most used in the phrase "Shit on a Shingle" during World War II.[9]
By the mid-1990s, chipped beef was difficult to find in US supermarkets.[5]
