[Sca-cooks] Weird American food?

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 21, 2008, at 1:19 PM, Beth Ann Bretter wrote:

>> I don't think I've ever, in my life, laid eyes upon
>> chipped beef. The
>> photo in Wikipedia looks like a somewhat
>> more-aggressively-cured
>> version of Lebanon Bologna.
>
> It's really nothing like Lebanon Bologna.  It's more like a dried,  
> but not so dried as to be jerky like, corned beef.  Heck, I don't  
> even know what section of the supermarket to buy it in (I was never  
> a fan) but all the chipped beef I've ever
> seen came packaged similarly to smoked salmon.


I wonder if there's been some [recent] change to the formula. Hormel's  
product is the only one I've seen in an individual slice, and it's  
pretty clearly from a formed meat product, if the photo I saw is  
remotely representative. Perfectly round, shiny-smooth around the  
edges, flecked evenly with tiny bits of either fat or gristle, which  
is what made me think of Lebanon Bologna. One web site refers to each  
slice as a little round patty, which made me think it had evolved into  
some form of sliced, lean sausage.

Early descriptions of it that I've seen compare it to bresaeola,  
bundnerfleisch, etc., but the photo didn't look much like those.

As for where you'd find it, I can't say for sure, but there's probably  
an aisle with canned meats in most supermarkets: beef stew, chili,  
that sort of thing, and by extension, things like jars of pickled  
pig's feet. If there is such a section in your market, if they have it  
at all, I'm guessing that's where it would be.

Adamantius




"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter