Chipped beef on toast - Definition and Overview

Chipped beef on toast is a foodstuff comprised of a creamy sauce, and slivers of meat, served on toasted bread. In military slang it was commonly referred to with the dysphemism "Shit On a Shingle" (SOS).

Chipped beef is a dried, smoked, and salted meat product, generally sold wadded up in jars or flat in plastic packets. The 1910 edition of the Manual for Army Cooks provides the following recipe, for a quantity sufficient for 60 men:

15 pounds chipped beef
1 pound of fat, butter preferred
1 1/4 lbs of flour
2 12-oz cans of evaporated milk
1 bunch parsley
1/4 oz pepper
6 quarts beef stock

Brown the flour in the melted fat. Dissolve the milk in the beef stock, and then add that to the pot. Stir this together slowly to prevent lumping, and then add the beef. Cook for a few minutes, add the parsley, and serve over toast.