Dried Beef, “Maryland Style”

Now that the mystique of cream gravy is lifted for me this recipe looked like a nice lazy entry, plus it has “Maryland” in the name for some reason. I’m not sure why that is although the recipe note in Maryland’s Way says “Dried, smoked beef, such as found in the Lexington Market Baltimore, should be scalded in this manner to remove some of the salt. Packaged chipped beef need not be first scalded.”

I searched Lexington Market and found no such thing so I bought a can of Hormel – and THEN I found a package of Esskay so that is what I ultimately used.
Nonetheless, please view this magical artful photo of the Hormel product on Wikipedia.

As for Esskay, it was founded in 1858 and became known as Esskay due to a consolidation in 1919 – Schluderberg and Kurdle (S and K) . They closed their Baltimore plant in 1993 because “its structure was not be strong enough to support 10-ton ham-boiling machines the company was planning add to its operations”.

I remember hearing their jingles on the radio during Orioles games growing up but I couldn’t find those jingles, only this amusing/gross video.

The internet didn’t turn up a precise origin story about creamed-chipbeef but the recipe I used is attributed to “The Up-To-Date Cook Book”, a community cookbook for St. Johns, a Montgomery County church, dated 1897. In that book it is known simply as “frizzled beef” or “creamed dried beef.”

Some diner I went to once had on their menu “S.O.S.” with the description “you know what this is.”

And indeed I do… its been a lifelong favorite, even though as a child I mostly got it from a plastic package that one BOILED and then emptied onto toast.

There is really not much else to say but I will take this opportunity to get on my soap-box and implore the world to stop serving up sub-par cream gravies. Gelatinous, flavorless, perhaps from a powdered mix.. being served now at a diner near you. Why? What is sacred if we can’t enjoy the magical simplicity of cream gravy?

Recipe:

• .5 Lb beef, dried
• 2 Tablespoon butter
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 2 Cup milk
• toast

Shred beef and place in a frying pan. Add butter and cook until slightly frizzled. Sprinkle over flour and stir well; add milk, stirring constantly. It will thicken quickly. Pepper and serve on hot toast.

PS I served it with some spinach because vitamins.