Creamed chipped beef

Don't turn this page off just yet. At least read the lead-in as to why I'm posting a recipe for creamed chipped beef, okay?

My cousin who lives in Oregon put me onto another cooking BLOG entitled Get Stuffed and as I was looking through the recipes I missed while I was away, he wrote about sawmill gravy and for some reason it reminded me of something I loved to eat whenever my mom made it.

She would send me to the butcher for a half a pound of dried beef. Dried beef is not real good eaten in a sandwich, but mom seemed to love them because she ate a lot of them. But this half pound was for something else. It was for her cream dried beef, which we either ate over toast (most of the time) or over biscuits (rarely). I preferred it over toast anyway.

The army has another name for this delicacy (*&*^ on a shingle, I believe it's called) and it can be an unappetizing mess if not served as my mom served it. She made us think we were having a dish fit for a queen when she dished it up, and her "cream" was never too thick or lumpy.

I have modified it a bit because I thicken things so much differently than my mom did, but the result is the same.

Since I don't think you can get dried beef at a butcher's shop any more, at least not out here in the Midwest, perhaps in NJ you still can, I have had to get it in a jar in the tuna section. Hormell is the brand I use because I can't find any other brand.

You will need: (serves six plus)

1 jar of dried beef -- take the slices of beef and cut them into small pieces
2 cups of milk
1/4 stick of butter (I use real butter as did my mom)
2 tbspn flour

Melt the butter in a skillet. When the butter is melted, sprinkle the flour around over the melted butter and whisk it together until you have a smooth paste (a roux). Slowly add the milk, stirring until all the milk is incorporated into the roux. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Bring the milk to a simmer and then add the chipped, or dried, beef. Stir so the beef gets warmed.

Now you're ready to make the dish for a queen or king. My dear mother would make toast points. What are toast points? Well, as she explained to us, this was the only way kings and queens ate toast before they added something to bring flavor to the toast.

Toast your bread as you would normally -- for toast points she always used thin-sliced white bread -- and cut each piece of toast into four triangles. Wa-la (not exactly the French spelling), you have toast points. Not wishing to waste one morsel of food my mom left the crusts on, but if you want to be true to the toast points of kings and queens, the crusts should be removed.

Now place four toast points on a plate and slowly drizzle the chipped beef mixture over the toast. Eat it before the toast absorbs the cream sauce and ask for another helping. I could get fat (joke there) on this stuff. I just loved it when I was growing up, and for a family of six who had little money for food, this was a cheap meal. Mom usually made this for dinner, not lunch, and served it with a side of peas, and always a salad.

ttfn