This recipe appears in the 1910, 1916, and 1917 editions of the Manual for Army Cooks. The dish is one of the earlier Army recipes for chipped beef on toast. It was originally designed for 60 men, so I experimented with the measurements to reduce the recipe to four servings. My recipe for chipped beef follows the historic Army recipe.
Beef, Chipped (Manual for Army Cooks)
My dad and I made this recipe a couple of months ago, but we did not scald the beef before cooking. It was extremely salty, but we still ate it. The second time I made this dish, I took the “If the beef is very salty, it should be scalded before cooking” to an extreme. I covered the beef with boiling water and let it rest for 3-4 minutes. Every remnant of salt was gone, and the beef was a little bland. This time, I looked up the definition of scald in the manual’s index (something I should have done first), and it said: “To scald utensils, etc.; to dash over with boiling water” (War Department Doc. No. 564, p. 20). I took the etc to mean anything, so I put the dried beef in a colander and poured boiling water over it. It removed enough of the salt to make the dish fairly tasty.
Chipped Beef Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 heaping tablespoons of flour about ¼ cup
- 1½ cups beef stock
- 1½ cups evaporated milk
- 1 cup dried beef 2 jars, 4.5 ounces each
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 8 slices of toast
Instructions
- Place the beef in a colander, and scald with boiling water. Do not let the beef remain in the water as it will remove all salt. Drain well; chop beef into bite-size pieces and reserve.
- Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a medium size cast iron skillet. Add the flour, and cook for a couple of minutes, until the flour is well dissolved. Add milk and beef stock, and mix well. Once mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat, and cook until mixture thickens to desired consistency. Add the beef and cook for a couple of minutes longer. Adjust salt and pepper as needed. Add parsley just before serving. Add one or two scoops of chipped beef per slice of toast.
Sherry, This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe and the meaning of how to scald the beef – never knew that. Pinned & Shared 🙂
I over scalded it the first time I made it:-) That’s so me!
I love that you found the recipe in an old army cooking manual. It’s great that you were able to update the recipe and figure out how to make it tasty.
Thanks! I collect old cookbooks. Sometimes, when I’m bored, I’ll make a recipe or two. It’s fun!
wow brings back memories from when I was a kid. We were military brats and our dad cooked this for us many times! Great idea on the scalding – I haven’t heard that before but such a great way to reduce the salt!
I’m a military brat, too, and we had SOS all of the time!
Believe it or not, I’ve never had chipped beef. I love the fact that you found this in an old Army manual — and that you were brave enough to figure out how to alter it to feed 4 instead of 60! Thanks for sharing what it means to “scald” the beef; I would never have know that. 🙂
How good to revive such a nostalgic recipe and it looks delicious too. I would take the less salty version.
My hubby loves chip beef and talks about it being one of his favorite dishes when he was in the Army. I’m sure making this authentic Army dish would bring back more pleasant memories for him!