The Creamy Meal On Toast Soldiers Loved To Hate

The U.S. military has a colorful history of resorting to creative ways to feed troops within the restrictive confines of soldiering life. From MRE pizza that lasts for years and can be eaten sans refrigeration or heating, to fortified chocolate D-rations that contained 600 calories apiece to keep servicemembers from starving, the food America has used to keep its troops nourished has long met with great kvetching and grumbling from dissatisfied young soldiers longing for hot, home-cooked meals. Another military dish with a serious "love to hate it" (or is it the other way around?) reputation is SOS, a wide-reaching name for some form of chipped, diced, or minced meat in a cream gravy served on a bread product.

Whether you and yours know it as "same ole stuff," "save our souls," or a less family-friendly backronym related to shingles, it's likely that your grandfathers and great-uncles who served in the military were intimately familiar with SOS. Its roots stretch all the way back to the 18th century, by way of rice gruel, farina mush, and, later, a hardtack and salt pork concoction devised by a hungry Civil War lieutenant. It's been dished up in military mess halls ever since, much to the combined excitement and dismay of troops, who are often ambivalent about the dish. If you're still curious and wish to try it, SOS isn't as utterly extinct as some specimens on the list of foods from the 1970s that you can't find now, but it's definitely a bit of a vintage delight nowadays.

The most classic preparation of SOS involved chipped dried beef mixed with béchamel and poured over white toast. Soldiers greatly prefer a more evolved version that substitutes lean ground beef, and this is the variation most popular with home cooks today. This is a very humble meal — after frying the beef, you stir in butter, sprinkle with flour, and whisk in milk until thickened. The seasoning is basic salt and pepper, with perhaps a bit of parsley for color. Nostalgic baby boomers recall being served this chow during enlistment or having it dished up for a weeknight dinner. It's hard not to see the appeal: SOS is easy for even unskilled cooks to whip up, uses cheap ingredients, and can be scaled easily to feed a crowd.

Today, you can dress up SOS with some simple home tweaks. Giving the meat some extra seasoning goes a long way, even if it's just onion and garlic powder. Of course, a bit of paprika or cayenne wouldn't go amiss. A great gravy can take canned biscuits to the next level and also provides a heartier bed for your SOS. For a more indulgent take, make homemade buttermilk biscuits. You'll notice correctly that this is veering awfully close to Southern biscuits and gravy, and the internet is ripe with discussion about the tremendous spiritual overlap between these two dishes. In our view, meaty gravy on bread is a combination that never misses, regardless of the specifics.