Creamed Beef Over Toast
Dried beef in a milk gravy, spooned over toast. Old cafeteria food that packs down to powder.
- calories
- 480
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 107
- protein
- 21 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 650 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried sliced beef | 5 oz | jarred Hormel or vacuum-packed Buddig, both keep unrefrigerated until opened |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 1 1/3 cups | reconstitutes to 4 cups |
| All-purpose flour | 1/2 cup | |
| Ghee or shelf-stable butter | 1/2 cup | ghee does not need a cooler |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Bread or tortillas | 12 slices | day-old bread toasts better than fresh |
Method
- Whisk the milk powder into 4 cups (about 950 ml) of cool water and set it aside. Lumps now become lumps later.
- Tear the beef into strips the size of a postage stamp.
- Melt the ghee in the pot over low heat. Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper and keep it moving for a minute until it smells like biscuits.
- Add the milk in a thin stream, whisking the whole time. Stop pouring if it thickens faster than you can stir.
- Bring it just to the edge of a boil, then drop the heat. Stir in the beef and hold it at a bare simmer for 10 minutes.
- Toast the bread on a grate over the coals or dry in a second pan while the gravy cooks.
- Spoon the gravy over the toast. Salt at the end, not before, because the beef is already salty.
This is a roux and a white gravy, which means the only thing that can go wrong is the milk going in too fast. Flour and fat cooked together for a minute lose their raw taste and thicken four cups of liquid without any dairy that needs a cooler. Whole milk powder does the work of fresh milk and weighs a fraction as much, and ghee replaces butter because it sits in a pack at 80 degrees without turning.
The beef is preserved by salt, not by cold, so it rides fine until you cut the seal. That is also why the recipe holds back on salt until the end. Ten minutes of simmering pulls the salt out of the meat and into the gravy, and by then it usually needs nothing.
Packing
Combine the milk powder, flour, salt, and pepper in one bag at home and label the water amount on it. Ghee travels in a screw-top jar. Beef stays sealed until you open it, then it gets eaten that meal.
Variations
- No bread left? Serve it over instant potato flakes or crushed crackers.
- A packet of instant coffee-shop pepper and a dash of hot sauce cuts the richness.
- Swap the beef for a foil pouch of chicken if the salt is too much.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/chipped_beef_on_toast-2382.asp