# What is this piece of silverware for?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 6, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266 "2013-11-06T19:08:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266/21 "2013-11-09T05:11:03Z")

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Ha, my Dad was in the navy during the Korean War … he says they called it, “shit on a shingle.” (it was on toast.)

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**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266/22 "2013-11-09T06:36:50Z")

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Shit on a shingle-SOS- is a traditional military dish. Chipped beef is fairly light and doesn’t need to be refrigerated, and in the field, this can be very important. Putting it in a cream sauce makes it more palatable, and toast is fairly easy to make. Personally, I prefer my creamed beef over rice or potatoes, but I’ll eat it on toast.

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**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266/23 "2013-11-09T16:01:44Z")

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In the armed forces, did everyone have to carry their own chipped beef fork or did the outfit share one?

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**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266/24 "2013-11-09T16:08:17Z")

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> [@74westy](#):
>
> In the armed forces, did everyone have to carry their own chipped beef fork or did the outfit share one?

I would assume they used a [military fork](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_fork).

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266/25 "2013-11-09T16:30:03Z")

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> [@silenus](#):
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> Elaborate place settings were designed to weed out pretenders to gentility. There is no other reason, except maybe to separate the elite from their cash via excessive purchase of flatware.

It also served as an emergency fund for women. They couldn’t own land or property, but they could sell the silver in a pinch. But keeping a trunk full of cash? How gauche! One might suppose one was actually - gasp! - planning for one’s economic downturn! Silverware was silver, in a socially acceptable hoarding shape.

This is why stealing the silver was such a big friggin’ deal. It wasn’t that they couldn’t spare a fork, it was that the fork was in fact part of their savings account.

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**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-piece-of-silverware-for/673266/26 "2013-11-09T18:28:53Z")

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Oh wow, **WhyNot,** I never realized that. Makes a little more sense now.

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