Sos Chipped Beef Started Ehete in the Service
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recipe and history of SOS
- Thread in 'Links to Free Recipes' Thread starter Started by coyote,
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Submitted by: E. Wickenheiser
It's said that an Army fights well on a full stomach and the Marine Corps is no exception. Always and foremost, in training or in combat, the breakfast meal is number one. For every "grunt", "airedale" and/or "pinky" at the start of the workday. Breakfast is the link to "making it" that day, and "a breakfast without SOS is like a day without sunshine."
We can only imagine or guess at what the meals and types of food were being served at Tunn's, or with O'Bannon in Tripoli, but I'll bet you, they had some sort of S.O.S.
The original creamed ground beef now served at every Marine breakfast had many stories of origin, the story that I was told was, that it was first served during World War I in France.
The Marine forces on the line were served meals that were prepared by the Army, from field kitchens in the rear. On this one occasion during a battle, the Marines moved so fast forward that the Army Mess Company couldn't keep up with the advancement. On that particular evening the cooks had prepared a meal which was roasted beef with a cream gravy (Boeuf le Creme de Argonne) and sent it up to the front lines.
It took the mess men all night to find the location of the fast moving Marine Brigade, and the meal was not delivered until the next morning.
Not wanting to waste the food and not having the tools to serve it properly, the Marine First Sgt. ordered that the meat and gravy (sauce) be placed on the dry bread and handed to each man. The men being very hungry did not complain but instead requested that this meal be served again, but with the proper utensils.
Over the following years the recipe changed depending on the availability of supplies and the mood of the cook. Do to the lack of funds given to the Marine Corps by the Navy, especially in hard times (like now), many of the cooks could not afford to purchase the beef roasts needed in the recipes for "Boeuf le Creme de Argonne" and other beef dishes. They therefore substituted the less expensive, ground beef in place of the roasts.
This was quite popular as an evening meal and was served a number of times a week. One big advantage that the cooks liked was that there was little or no waste, leftovers could be served the next morning. It grew in popularity more for breakfast than for the evening meal and today it's never served other than for breakfast.
The other branches of service (Army, Navy, etc.) will also serve their version of SOS, but they haven't mastered the Marine's technique of preparing this marvelous breakfast presentation.
The Army uses chipped and salted dried beef (yuk), and the Navy uses beans and tomatoes in their recipe (barf !), the Air Force gave up trying and our friends in the Coast Guard now eat breakfast in the nearest Marine mess hall.
A number of years ago (back in the 70's), San Francisco's own Marine Artillery General (Brigadier) Tiago, requested/ordered that a recipe for the Marine Corps famous S.O.S. (creamed beef on toast) be developed so that it could be serve to a small group of about eight (8) persons, this way the general could have his wife make it at home. The official recipe for the mess halls is for serving 300 or more. This challenge was taken up by his chief field artillery cook, M/Sgt Bernie Parker. After many tries and a few mistakes "Top" Parker came up with the following, near perfect, recipe.
Recipe for "Marine Breakfast"
(Serves 8 or two hungry Marines)
1/2 lb. Ground Beef (ground chuck for flavor)
1 tbs. Bacon fat (lard/Crisco or butter)
3 tbs. Flour
2 cups Whole milk (add more milk if you want it thinner)
1/8 tsp. Salt
Pepper (to taste)
8 slices of dry toast
Using a large skillet (12"-14"), crumble and brown the ground beef with the fat and salt, remove the pan from the heat and let cool slightly.
Mix in the flour until all of the meat is covered, using all of the flour. Replace the skillet on the heat and stir in the milk, keep stirring until the mixture comes to a
boil and thickens (boil a minimum of 1 minute).
Serve over the toast. Salt & pepper to taste. "Semper fi"
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my elementary school would serve it once in a while. they called hamburg gravy. trying to keep us pure and not swearing too much, i guess.
thanks for the history lesson.
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The emphasis is on high calorie and standardisation :-)
It's apprently beena staple of the us army for a long time and you get it exactly the same all over the world on bases.
The actual recipe they showed had almost as much added fat as meat - like I said it's designed to keep soldiers going so serious calorific value.
I would think that unless you were actually training hard - small amounts only lol
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I'll take a plate!
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SOS is what we ate every Saturday morning growing up, before we hit the hay fields.
I love this stuff, definitely gonna have to make some soon for my family.
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We had one guy in the Corps that when he heard they were serving S.O.S. he'd grab a bottle of tobasco sauce out of his locker and head for the mess hall. He'd put so much on it we wondered how he ate it, but he did, and go back for more. LOL
Thanks for the memory.
Semper Fi
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/****_on_a_shingle
After a long bout with ulcers, my dad (who remembered SOS all too well during his Army days in WWII) cooked up some Armour's Dried beef into SOS and about gagged; he knew of and was well familiar with the smoky dried beef the Army used, preserved so well "...even could last thru Hiroshima.." he'd often quip. Being in the meat business, he vowed to make his own. He got some local heiferette rounds from Smitty's slaughterhouse who killed and sold lean local beef (heiferette vs. bull, being more tender 350-400lb carcass weight) and seamed them out into eye-round size, pumped them with his ham pickle juiced up with twice the salt, soaked for 30 days in same, then smoked for 2 days vs. 1. He chipped it on his slicer and sold it in ¼lb. bags for $1.29 each (this was in the 70's!). When warmed up in a milk gravy it imparted its smoky flavor deliciously throughout the gravy, the saltiness making it just right and was an instant hit with customers; he had to buy two automatic slicers just to keep up with the demand, processing 300lb lots of it 2, 3, sometimes 4 times a week. Us kids had to weigh and bag it up in baggies and attach headers w/state inspection seals on them to the bags every night as part of our chores (but we'd get to sample a lot, lol!).
A pic of Dad at the store with one of the automatic Hobart slicers behind him:
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Having been in Food Service for 22 of my 29 years in the Army I can truthfully say that chipped beef was never used in the SOS served in my mess hall, only ground beef. There was a recipe which specified the use chipped beef but we never used it nor did I ever encounter it in any other unit I was visiting.The Army version is almost identical to the one you show in your post.
My father was a Mess Sgt during WWII and Korea and served the same version I served so SOS was a family tradition when I was growing up. My brother was a swab jockey and could never get used to the Navy's version.
My wife and I currently own a bed & breakfast and about 10 years ago a retired Marine and his wife stayed with us. That evening while he and I were swapping "lies and war stories" he asked if we ever served SOS for breakfast. I answered that we hadn't but I would certainly be willing to make some for him since my wife, as well as his, didn't care for this wonderful dish. They come stay with us at least twice a year and he and I enjoy this dish each time. It brings back a lot of memories!
Thanks for your service and God Bless!
SGM Toodles
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