# "Shit on a Shingle" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195 "2003-07-17T17:38:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/1 "2003-07-17T17:38:06Z")
Can anyone tell me if there’s another name for this staple of basic training chow halls? I’ve gotten a hankering for some, and would have made it for lunch today if I’d known what else to call it. That is just not a name I want to tell the kids. Furdette: “Papa, what’s for lunch?” Mort Furd: “Shit on a shingle.” Furdette: “???” Does this stuff have another name? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/2 "2003-07-17T17:40:21Z")
“Creamed chipped beef on toast” would probably be the formal name. I actually like it – but it’s better on cornbread. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/3 "2003-07-17T17:47:55Z")
I like the stuff, too. Thanks for the name. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/4 "2003-07-17T18:58:31Z")
Scat on a hot tin roof? ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/5 "2003-07-17T19:18:58Z")
Phooey!! Igititigit!! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/6 "2003-07-17T19:20:56Z")
“Creamed chipped beef on toast” isn’t that much of an improvment over “shit on a shingle”. I doubt that I would want to eat it no matter what it was called. First off, what cut is the “chip” - the shoulder or the block? Second, and maybe this is my Jewish upbringing, but creamed beef? I don’t think that anything could sound less appealing - except maybe pork marinaded in rancid milk. Also, I never would have suspected Lieu to post in a thread such as this one. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/7 "2003-07-17T19:40:43Z")
It is much better than it sounds. Think browned ground beef mixed in a thick milk based gravy - maybe with a little onion mixed in. Yummmm! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/8 "2003-07-17T19:42:45Z")
Just “S.O.S.” for short, as my father used t call it. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/9 "2003-07-17T19:45:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \* > **I doubt that I would want to eat it no matter what it was called.** You don’t need to be jewish to have reason to avoid this nastiness. Of course being jewish might give you a more polite way to bow out of eating it if someone served it to you rather than saying, “You want me to EAT this shit?” My grandma used to try to force this on my siblings and I. While we loved grandma it was one of the reasons we’d cry when we heard she’d be babysitting us. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/10 "2003-07-17T19:46:57Z")
Crap on a cracker? ---
**Author:** ![BF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5ac83/32.png) [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/11 "2003-07-17T20:01:47Z")
Don’t be dissin’ a culinary treat I was raised on, sheesh!!! We called it SOS, of course being children we were’nt clued to the meaning of the acronym. Dad made his with hamburger, eggs, and sometimes mushrooms and a lot of times served over rice instead of toast. Good for breakfast, lunch or supper. Now, chipped beef was another animal entirely (no pun inteneded). _That_ is nasty!! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/12 "2003-07-17T20:06:18Z")
So it’s a beefshake on toast? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/13 "2003-07-17T20:15:15Z")
Basic white sauce (butter, flour, milk I think) with the very thin packaged beef cut uop into ~5mm squares is how my mom made it. called it creamed chipped beef on toast. It’s a goog comfort food IMHO. Brian ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/14 "2003-07-17T20:17:35Z")
As a cook at OCS at Quantico I was the designated SOS cook. If I never see another ladle full of it, it’ll be too soon. I also had to scramble 30 dozen eggs each morning, but I can still eat them. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/15 "2003-07-17T20:26:55Z")
My father said it was frequent rations in WWII—but oddly enough, he _liked_ the stuff and taught my mother how to make it! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/16 "2003-07-17T20:26:58Z")
[Stouffers](http://www.stouffers.com/stouffersproducts/product.asp?ipc=151) offers their own version of Creamed Chipped Beef. Like **N9IWP** said, it was a favorite dish of mine when I was young. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \ ***Second, and maybe this is my Jewish upbringing, but creamed beef? I don’t think that anything could sound less appealing** What’s unappealing about it? Beef Stroganoff is fancy kin to creamed chipped beef. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/17 "2003-07-17T20:27:26Z")
uh, if you made it with hamburger, it ain’t SOS. Chipped beef is salted, smoked, dried, thin-sliced beef, usually sold in jars. It was obviously a valuable staple for military camps and pre-refrigeration households. It’s also obviously inedible unless you reconstitute it in a liquid - the preferred liquid being a sauce made of butter, flour, milk or evaporated milk, and maybe beef stock. This, I am told, makes it chewable, though not especially tasty. Of course, the same treatment was given to ground beef, as well as any beef they could lay their hands on, but the classic SOS was creamed _chipped_ beef on toast. [http://www.seabeecook.com/cookery/recipes/sos\_recipes.htm](http://www.seabeecook.com/cookery/recipes/sos_recipes.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/18 "2003-07-17T21:56:10Z")
The stuff you are talking about is creamed chipped beef on toast. That is not the classic SOS. The classic SOS is browned and crumbly hamburger in cream gravy on cold toast. Once it congeals its tastes and looks pretty awful, (like something produced by a scourie calf) but ladled up hot in the middle of a Midwestern winter in a World War Two mobilization mess hall it is a delight. A little Worstershire (SP?) Sauce helps. Along with eggs any way at 4:00 AM ( oh-dark-hundred to you civilians), it is a pleasant memory of a tough time. Mrs. G. makes a hamburger stroganoff that is almost as good. The chipped dried beef stuff was a comfort food of my childhood, lots of calories for not much money. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/19 "2003-07-17T22:20:54Z")
I have to side with **Nametag** on this one…all the S.O.S I’ve had was made from the dried beef (looked like thin pepperoni) which was diced and reconstituted in the white sauce gravy. Served on toast (mom’s preference) Nothing gross about it, it’s just toast with gravy, and the gravy has little chunks of dried beef in it. Dad was in the Navy, and he’s the one who brought the recipe home. [This One](http://www.seabeecook.com/cookery/recipes/chipb1945.htm) from **Nametag’s** link sure looks like it. ---
**Author:** ![hermann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b487fb/32.png) [@hermann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermann)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195/20 "2003-07-17T22:44:24Z")
I recall it was hamburger meat while I was in the Army, not chipped beef. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shit-on-a-shingle/189195.md?page=2)