My mom made it now and then, and we occasionally had it at Scout summer camp, but both were a looooong time ago. Can’t say I’ve missed it.
Not since my first duty station, so… just under twenty years ago.
I have it every few years on a backpacking trip. I also will make it for myself on Veteran’s Day as a way to trigger memories of my grandfather. He taught me to make it on a visit, and that is the only dish I ever saw him cook himself. He had it in WWII (Pacific theater) and again in Korea.
I never order it out, but I make it at home a couple times a year. It’s a quick, easy dinner. Cut the dried beef up and fry it in butter, add some flour and cook to make a meaty roux, and then add milk to finish it up. Toast up some whole wheat toast, and dinner is ready. Accompany with orange juice to cut the saltiness.
As with sausage gravy, I make mine much meatier than what you get out, where the flour and water dominate. I probably use at least twice as much meat as restaurants do when I make SOS or sausage gravy with pancakes.
Back when we still had a full cafeteria for the faculty, the lunch ladies once served us Chicken ala King. I mentioned to them that, while this offering was kinda good, if I ever saw SOS at lunch there would be Words Spoken.
We used to eat this a good bit in my family. Dad is a Vietnam vet. I haven’t seen him get chipped beef in a while, though.
Our family eats “creamed chicken” all the time though. At least once a month. Same thing but with chicken.
My mother made this all the time when I was growing up, and I always enjoyed it. She called it “dried beef gravy.” She would melt some cheese into the gravy to give it a bit more flavor. When I moved out and was on my own in my first apartment, I made it quite often myself. It’s very easy to make, which helps when you’re rather clueless in the kitchen. I would generally eat it on biscuits rather than toast, but it’s the same principle.
It was only years later that I learned that it’s something that is generally despised. It’s always been one of my favorite comfort foods. 
I never have, but the thought of creamed tuna is making my stomach turn. 
With some well browned and seasoned meat, real cream, and a higher proportion of meat as you mention I’m sure I could produce a nice dish. I think it would be something that needs a different name though, ‘SOS’ and ‘creamed chip beef’ should only reference the bland to awful mix mostly talked about in this thread.
I answered within 10 years for something that you’d definitively call SOS military cafeteria style.
However… it’s a not-uncommon style for dealing with leftovers. Slice up leftover steak or roast, warm it up in canned mushroom soup. We may use toast, but since this is all about left-overs, it’s as likely to be day-old French bread, biscuits, mashed potatoes or rice. We usually add some frozen green peas. If you’ll allow this to be considered SOS, then I eat it a few times a year.
My mom made creamed tuna on toast when I was a kid. I always liked it. I also miss tuna pot pies
Describe ‘done right’, please. A typical recipe for this is: heat butter in a pan, add flour (and salt and pepper), stir in milk and cook until thickened, add shredded beef. Unless you’re doing something additional, it doesn’t get any blander than that. Add the fact that the chipped beef usually comes from a can, and you’ve got salinity that matches the Pacific Ocean.
I cook the roux a little before adding anything else. The beef goes in before thickening, which puts salt into the gravy, and takes salt out of the beef. In addition to salt and pepper, I also put in one good shake of cayenne pepper.
Ordered it a diner I like about two years ago out of curiosity … it would have been fine except they didn’t say anything about there being chopped up hardboiled eggs in it as well… I cannot eat hard boiled eggs…at all. My wife very graciously swapped breakfasts with me.
The chair will allow.
That would certainly help, but (horrors!) you’re changing the traditional recipe. I’ve caught flak on this board for adding things (as in ‘flavor’) to sausage gravy, since it’s not traditional “Southern biscuits and gravy”, which I also find to be bland.
Eh, traditional biscuits and gravy might not be very exciting, but it’s the good sort of boring. Just a simple, straightforward dish, made well.
We have a butcher near us that makes excellent pork sausage - very flavorful, and not too salty or fatty. While I may make SOS a couple times a year, I make sausage gravy at least four to six times a year using this sausage, and plenty of it. Sometimes with pancakes and sometimes with waffles. I prefer either of those to biscuits, but that’s purely a personal preference. As mentioned, the sausage gravy I see at restaurants looks anemic and disgusting compared to mine.
I don’t think I’ve ever had chipped beef so I know I’ve never had traditional SOS. I do eat a combination of whatever leftover meat we have plus a type of gravy or cream of mushroom soup, all on top of either potatoes, egg noodles or bread. I generally make it about once a month, usually with the tail end of a crock pot roast.
Growing up I really loved what my Dad would call hash. Not traditional hash but more of a super thick beef stew made out of the leftovers or a Sunday roast. Chop up the meat, potatoes, carrots, and onions and heat them with a think gravy made out of the roast juice. We ate that spooned onto toast on Monday nights while watching football in the fall.
NEVER ! :eek: I haven’t eaten any beef for about 42 years .