Just like Tech Sergeant Mom used to make

In my poking around, I have found an interesting recipe.

My readers who have served in an army may remember chipped beef on toast, also known fondly as "shit on a shingle."

Well, if the Second Armoured Division drops by for dinner, here is a platoon sized recipe for the recipe, which you may find in The Army Cook (published by the U.S. Government Printing Office in 1942).

Beef, Dried, Chipped on Toast

2 pounds fat, butter preferred
1 pound flour
4 13 ounce cans evaporated milk
4 gallons beef stock
7 pounds chipped or sliced dried beef
2 bunches parsley, chopped fine
1/2 ounce pepper
130 slices bread, toasted

Melt fat in pan and add flour. Cook a few minutes to brown flour. Add milk and beef stock, stirring constantly to prevent lumping. Add dried beef and cook five minutes. Add parsley and pepper. Serve hot on toast.

I think that this technical manual must have had a lot of recipes for dried food. I have a World War Two-era issue of National Geographic which has an article which explores how the U.S. Army tried to save space on supply ships by drying as much food as possible. Two pictures with the article show a big mountain of food and the car-sized bundle of food parcels that it made once it had been dried and preserved.