Anyone still using chipped beef?

Question

I've been wanting to make "authentic" SOS using chipped beef. The problem is I just can't get myself to buy it. I'll have the jar in hand, but when I look at the stuff and what's next to it on the shelf (usually pickled pig's feet), I end up putting the jar back and backing away.

In my mind that stuff is just over salted beef jerky/shoe leather.

Am I wrong?
What dishes do you use the dried beef in?

Thanks

PS... I know there are recipes for SOS calling for ground beef, but I'm trying to get the courage to try the chipped beef version. :-)

Answer

Yep.

I buy it on occasion to may homemade SOS. Yum!!!!

The Armour brand in the clear jar is OK, but I much prefer the dried/chipped beef that is similar but kept chilled back in the hang peg cooler section of my local stores back with the packaged lunch meats. My stores have it in a non vac'd bag but sealed and protected just like the rest. 

It's a little softer and tends to have a nicer and less "jerky-like" texture after cooking but it is indeed still dried beef, just packaged differently and prolly of a lesser vintage, so to say...LOL...

I;ve also used the Carl Buddig brand beef in the package as well as it is close. If too soft, I often take it out of the package and chop up and then spread out on a cookie sheet in the refridge overnignt or as long as it takes for it to dry out to your preferred texture. Since it's processed, little heath harm but gets you where you need to be for any SOS recipe.

I'll be honest and the Armour is only my last line of choice as it does tend to be a bit too leathery for my tastes.

Answer

mmmmm now I have a craving for SOS, it has been years. Growing up we had it with both chipped beef - and sometimes leftover turkey, both very tasty. Like bacardi posted above I remember it with hard boiled eggs but also with peas. mmmmmmm yum

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dave_c, every (very rare) now and again, I'll get the urge for SOS made with chipped beef as sold in the Hormel container. I understand why you are daunted, because it looks like a version of Budd's pressed meats, only all dry, and chip-like. Right?
Okay, so consider this. You have the drive to work with it, so work with it respectfully. Use stock and real cream to rehydrate the strips of beef. Work slow; lightly brown up slew of onions, diced, and lend their flavors to the meat along with some salt and pepper. Be easy with the salt, as it will leach out of the meat even further during the cooking process. Add a drop or two of hot sauce; not enough to taste, but enough to sparkle the dish,make it flavorsome. Bake fresh biscuits, and ladle the SOS over. Don't be scared; take a bite. Ahhh. Stips of salty beef in creamy beefy gravy over flaky buttered biscuit.....wow. Nothing about this is wrong.

Answer

We buy the Oscar Meyer brand, not in a jar, but in a sealed bag sold with the packaged deli meats. Actually, I should say that my mom buys it...I can't have it in the house or I'd have creamed chipped beef on toast 3 meals a day, every day.

FWIW, I've never seen the stuff in a jar.

Answer

This is delicious: Butter a baking dish. Line it with an entire package of dried chipped beef. On top of this lay boneless skinless chicken breasts. On top of the chicken lay strips of bacon. Mix a can of Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken Soup with 1/2 pint of sour cream and pour this over the top. Bake at 275 for about an hour and a half or until slo-oo-owly done. For the last half-hour put some sliced almonds on the top. I've also seen a variant recipe in which the chicken is wrapped in the chipped beef and I once was served this dish when it had been going all day in the crock pot--- we went home for dinner with the hostess who was a co-worker. So you have a wide margin to fool around but the combination is surprisingly good.

Answer

I don't eat red meat anymore, but if I did?

Oh MAN, I'd eat SOS every week!

My mom did make it from scratch, and it was awesome. But busy days it was banquet in the boil in bag - and it was still yummy.

And Dave C, sure I was a teenager but still, I'd take those strips of dried beef from the jar, spread them with cream cheese, roll them up, eat them - and be in heaven.

So do not mock the dried beef. It is your friend.

Answer

Back in the day my mother would put a block of cream cheese in a small covered casserole, cover the cheese with a package of chopped chipped beef and a large dollop of horseradish. This would be brought to a cocktail party, heated in the oven and stirred. Served with crackers it was the best warm appetizer.

Answer

Oh, happy SOS memories from childhood! We always made it with the buddig package. I never knew you could get chipped beef in a jar. 

For one of our annual family gatherings, I try to include one of our childhood dishes. Lash year I made SOS appetizer--Small toasts with a bowl of the chipped beef in white sauce to put on the toasts. Tasty small bites.

Answer

Yes, I buy it for "Grandmother's chicken" occasionally ... it's the chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, covered in sour cream + cream of mushroom ... and can only be properly made by lining the casserole with dried beef.

Answer

Mom used to make this, loved it, she saved the jars for small drinking glasses.

Answer

Omigosh, this takes me back! We used to have it sometimes -- from a jar -- in a bechamel over rice, and Mother once served it at a hoity-toity brunch, gussied up with chopped red peppers and I-don't-remember-what-else, over her flaky homemade biscuits, and the women in their fancy dresses and pearls loved it! Must've been 40 years ago, and I still remember how good that was.

Thanks for the memories....

Answer

I use it in a dip: 
1 package/jar Dried Beef
1 bunch Scallions
1 lb. Cream Cheese
Chop beef into very small dice (or use food processor) and slice scallions and fold into cream cheese. Form into ball or log and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Great with celery, crackers, or spread on a bagel.
People will never guess what it is!

Answer

Have a feeling those little bags of dried beef hang around for a LONG time. Because of the nature of dried beef... they're "good" for a LONG time. A lot of people balk at the $12+/lb on the stuff at the deli counter, but I think it's far superior to bagged stuff. First, it's fresher... and the deli person can slice/chip it up for ya. I have a thing about having any deli meat (and cheese) sliced REALLY thin. Might be my imagination (but don't think so) but think it tastes better thin?!?

Answer

SOS is one of my fav comfort foods. I tend to make it for lunch or when the hubby is out of town...this and tuna noodle casserole with potato chips on top. Occasionally I buy the Stouffers version which is not at all bad.

Darn, it's 95 here and you've got me craving this now! (It usually is a Winter craving.) 

BTW, I use the Buddigs package and not the jarred type. Would that make a difference?

I probably eat this 3 or 4 times a year so I figure it isn't too bad if I indulge myself on occasion.

Answer

My mother made SOS with both the Buddig and the jarred stuff when I was growing up. My dad and sister gobbled it, but as with most of these types of things, I refused to touch it. I just wasn't interested! (Still not, actually)

Fast forward to now, and my mother and sister are the pickiest eaters that I've ever seen! And I eat more things than they will even look at....funny how things change! My taste buds just didn't love that sixties and seventies food, I guess....

Answer

I made SOS last week, but it had been years and I forgot to rinse the beef first to take away most of the salt. My Mom and I used to order it for breakfast whenever we stayed at the Regency Hotel in NYC. Talk about guilty pleasures.

Answer

I love creamed chipped beef, but save it as a treat when I can get to the PA Dutch market where the butcher does his own air-dried beef that is superior to the commercially available versions. It is much drier and has a richer flavor, and it looks like actual shaved meat. 

Even with the good meat, I make mine a little spiffed up for my taste, adding a small amount of sauteed onion or shallot, plus dashes of worcestershire sauce, sherry and hot sauce to the cream sauce. Not "authentic" but it's what I like. When I've made it with the packaged chipped beef, I sizzle the beef in the butter until the edges start to look slightly crispy which makes the texture better for my tastes.

As for other uses, my mother made a dish using chipped beef when we were growing up: chicken breasts with chipped beef slices underneath and the whole thing wrapped in bacon, then topped with cream of mushroom soup with white wine and sour cream poured over and baked. I've never gone that route, myself. I also remember cream cheese speads with chipped beef back in the 60s and 70s, though I haven't seen them since. Guess chipped beef isn't the sexy ingredient of the moment.

Answer

I just made it last night with it. It is great...always enjoyed it when I came in from hunting with dad and grandpa. Now my son is enjoying my memories with me. When using the jar of Homel make sure to wash each piece of beef slice real well under running cold water, it is VERY salty. When gravy is done just shred up the chipped beef. Better then burger or sausage.

Answer

I love creamed chipped beef, probably because mother made it often at the end of the month. Comfort food I guess.

But as an adult, I do add some things that Mom didn't. I got the idea from Joy of Cooking, there's a recipe for it in "brunch, lunch and supper" chapter of my old edition which calls for: minced onion, minced green pepper, chopped chives or parsley (whoohoo, I add both!), a little sherry, and chopped capers (or dill pickles). 

It's really good this way, just add a couple tablespoons of everything except capers, which are pretty powerfully salty and you only need a little, a teaspoon or so. If using cucumber dill pickles, maybe a tablespoon. This recipe is for 8 oz of dry beef, I use much less, generally only four ounces to about 2 1/2 c white sauce made with milk and unsalted butter. Improved in my opinion by plenty of black pepper. On toast, or biscuit (don't add much salt to the biscuit). 

I usually don't rinse the beef and usually use the Armour product, as that's what they sell hereabouts. I do crisp it up in the butter before I add the onions, green pepper and parsley to saute a little pre-sauce.

Answer

My mom used to make this, served with biscuits and home fries, and we all loved it. She saved the jars for juice glasses.

I liked to steal a few pieces and set them out to dry for a few days, to eat like a potato chip. Talk about salty!

Answer

My mother always made gravy from chipped beef. It was really good.

Answer

Mom made the usual base for white sauce: 1 tbsp margarine/butter melted to dissolve 1 tbsp flour with 1 C milk whisked in to complete the 'gravy'. She then added the cheap store brand of chipped beef, packaged at around 4/$1.00, using 1 2 oz package; Buddig I believe.

I've since upped my recipe from Moms base using Armour dried beef and adding sliced mushrooms; no additional seasonings needed due to the plentiful sodium that comes from the sliced beef.

Answer

Love the Stouffer's brand that was mentioned down thread. I only tried it based on another thread here. My mom used to make it using the cheap bagged lunch meat.

I'm excited to try the dips listed, both the hot and the cold. My aunt used to make a dip with it that had cream cheese, sour cream, green peppers, and chipped beef...wonderful chip dip.

Answer

I use lower sodium dried beef and add a dash of soy while it's sauteing with butter.
Amazing.

Answer

Think of it as the meat version of Baccala!! Do you eat Bresaola? It is a true delicacy.

Answer

A tip that some of y'all might find useful. I pay attention to types of "shelf-stable" meats and fish, sometimes trying them in recipes.

A product that somewhat displaced classic US dried or "chipped" beef is the canned "corned beef" (under Hormel and other labels), which is in essence the SAME THING at slightly higher moisture content. Very long shelf life, unopened.

"Corned Beef" is confusing. This canned stuff routinely has no added spices, such as "corned beef" implies in other US contexts -- just preserved chopped beef, similar to the "dried" pressed sheets. Can be used for same purposes. 

I occasionally make a flavorful beefy mushroom sauce for pasta, by slowly simmering a 12-oz can of "corned beef" in unsalted meat stock -- breaking it up with a spatula -- and in the last 20-30 minutes, adding an abundance -- a pound or more -- of sliced fresh mushrooms, cooking them in the mixture (and, sometimes, a little thickening via cornstarch). The canned product give the same flavor as fresh ground beef in the result. (This can really use a lot of mushrooms, as much as two pounds, making say 10 good servings, each containing just a little beef, for flavor.)

My late father, a splendid creative cook, talked all his life about experience with "SOS" during military service in WW2. I guess he got more than his fill, since he never cooked the stuff himself during my lifetime, though he cooked other things constantly.

Answer

Call around to a local butcher, we get ours at one locally...Really good stuff. And I get to know where it comes from.

Answer

Thank you for reviving this topic, or should I say reconstituting it. I had a huge craving for sos last night. It is damp and dreary here and some comfort food would be nice. The appetizer made with chipped beef sounds great too. I might try that instead.

Answer

I have some leftover thin sliced tri tip with chopped white onions that was a cheeseless Philly cheesesteak last night. I also still have some hard boiled eggs from Easter. I LOVE what we called Eggs Goldenrod growing up. Basically the chopped whites in a bechamel, over toast, with the crumbled yolks on top. So I am thinking of combining the two for dinner tonight. What do you think? Bechamel with thiny sliced "cheesesteak" beef & hard boiled egg whites, over toast with crumbled egg yolks on top? Or maybe over wide egg noodles?

Answer

First, SOS and Creamed Chipped beef, are not the same thing, SOS is creamed ground beef, Creamed Chipped Beef is the same milk gravy base with chipped beef, not ground beef

Answer

Stephanie's Creamed Chipped Beef

2-1/2 oz. Jar of Armour Dried Beef
¾ c. beef stock or water
2 T. butter, beef fat, or vegetable oil
3 T. all-purpose flour
1 c. milk
pepper
½ t. Kitchen Bouquet
toast or biscuits

Slice dried beef into strips. In a small bowl, soak dried beef strips in hot water for 3 minutes to remove the salt. With hands squeeze water out of beef. In a skillet over medium heat toss in the beef & cook 2/3 minutes only to remove the water. Add fat & flour, stir until flour turns light brown. Add milk, stir until thick and comes to a boil. Stir in pepper to taste. Add Kitchen Bouquet and stir to blend. More milk can be used to thin the sauce. Serve over buttered toast. Serves 2. 

“Jimmy” Morgan J. Dawes, taught Stephanie L. Dawes how to make this dish, he said the secret was browning the flour not only for taste (removes the paste like tang) but for a light brown sauce.

---------------------

My wife Stephanie made this often over the 50 years of our relationship and marriage. She passed away 2 months ago. This was my wife's recipe. This is very much comfort food for my son and I and we loved it. My wife was an extraordinary cook and we are trying to recreate some of her recipes. For many years, she made her own beef stock and would roast soup bones, add water, simmer, cool and remove the fat which she would freeze and save to add and intensify the flavor of the creamed chipped beef. The dried beef has very little fat content and benefitted from the added taste beef fat contributed. I used to buy Armour Dried Beef by the case from BuyTheCase.net which I found has gone out of business. The jarred beef has a practically unlimited shelf life, I always wanted it in the pantry for my wife, and I figured it would be good survival food as well. Our only complaint about the product was with manufacturer and a change in packaging. Originally the glass jars made perfect juice glasses with a straight tapered edge and we reused every one of them or gave them away. Some time ago, the company changed to a sharply rounded edge lip which are not as perfect for recycling as juice glasses. We never referred to this dish as SOS although my wife's father, who taught her to make it, may have originally acquired his taste for it while serving in the Coast Guard during WWII. I stumbled across this post when searching for the company where we used to buy chipped beef by the case. 

Milton Sandy, Jr. 8/25/2014

Answer

Get it at an old fasioned meat market they still sell it fresh and not caned. but not everywhere has it. I usually only find it in the Midwest and its best made in sos on toast or in a scalloped potatoe type casserole. Also with cream cheese in roll ups with a vegetable like asparagus

Answer

I replied to a comment about how good the Stouffer's frozen Creamed Chipped Beef was. However, while looking for "dried beef" to "make-it-yourself" after a friend posted a recipe on FB (which is what led me here), I discovered this article which tells of a brand of authentic original style dried beef that to me sounds much better than the jar stuff. If I can find it, I just might try making it myself. I do love the Stouffer's though. Good luck on your "Creamed Chipped Beef" journey~!

http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/2009/01/remember-real-dried-beef.html

Answer

We've been treating ourselves to SOS lately. I get Eskay reduced sodium dried beef and cook it with some butter, flour, milk and soy sauce.
Serve over white bread toast points, and it's heavenly.

Answer

I make it all the time. Always have a few jars on hand.

Answer

My mother made creamed chipped beef and hamburger gravy when I was a kid, we all loved it, including my Dad who was in end of WWII and Korea and Army Reserves. Sometimes she would add peas to the creamed chipped beef and we usually had it over toast points. I never recall her soaking the dried beef but at that age, I didn't pay much attention. I never recall the dish being overly salty, but I have seen many recipes on-line which do not mention soaking it or even rinsing it. Believe it or not, I had trouble finding dried beef here in NYC grocery stores, so I bought some while visiting my folks in another state. I bought 2 brands and transported in a zip-lock bag and stored in freezer. A few months ago, I used one of the two brands (which was more pinkish in color) and the creamed chipped beef was not overly salty. I just used the other (which is a more "roast beef brown" to make creamed chipped and I cannot believe how salty it is. I added no salt to the dish. I'm now wondering if it best to always at least well rinse dried beef (if not soak it in some hot water) before using in a recipe. I love salt (more than sweet taste), but this is way too salty for even me and likely I'm getting a week's worth of salt quotient in this creamed chipped beef. Since I did not save the original jar or packet, I have no idea if they recommend soaking or rinsing before using.

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Yum! Mom always made hers with homemade white sauce made with milk. Bought the dried beef in jars. If I could find it I would buy it just for SOS!

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I know this is an old thread but am responding anyway. I use dried beef like others in milk gravy for SOS. I also make pinwheels by mixing it with cream cheese (not flavored ones because it will be too salty) then spread lightly on a tortilla and roll it up. Slice the rolled up tortilla then use a salsa fresco as a dip. They are really tasty.

Answer

i use chip beef to make rye boat dip which is a dip you use to dip rye and or pumpernickel bread in you actually put the dip in a well you make in the center of a whole uncut loaf of bread, chip beef is very salty so u will want to rinse it and pat it dry before you use it basically its just salted and cured meat if you eat pepperoni or ham etc its pretty much the same thing, i hate SOS personally my aunt is the only one who has made it where it didnt taste like paste and salt..lol

Answer

You can buy Hormel's chipped beef in a vacuum packed jar at Target (order online and pickup in the store).
It is reasonable ($4.49) and it makes great SOS.
Just bought some on February 20, 2017

Answer

My father loved chipped beef on toast with a bechamel sauce. I would make often for a late night snack for when he came home late from his office hours.
We used to use Beardsley. I would soak in hot water for a few minutes to get some of the salt out of it. I don't think that they have that brand anymore and I really don't like the look of any brand that I see now so I haven't had in years

Answer

Back in Pa, I used to get chipped beef right at the lunchmeat counter. You just tell them you want half a pound of the dried beef- chipped. That's what I use and its always really good. Can't find it anywhere out here in Az, but going to order some online with some other Pa Dutch "scrapple" and "puddin' for my hubby. Expensive but we will just make it a treat. Used to make it for supper or breakfast, and another good one is with loose sausage. (sausage gravy)

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Stoffer's sells it in frozen food case at Ralph's and Albertsons

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I love it. My dad was a Boy Scout.... the recipes I"ve trolled are cheese balls..... whateves. Gonna just make the classic and enjoy. :}

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Absolutely! And -- what a coincidence -- I'm making it for dinner tonight. Simple answer: Use the recipe in "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook for "Creamed Chipped Beef". I suggest that you soak the beef in hot tap water for ~10 seconds to reduce the salty taste, then pat it dry with paper towels. Enjoy the real thing!

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