The modern product consists of small, thin, flexible leaves of partially dried beef, generally sold compressed together in jars or flat in plastic packets.

Creamed chipped beef is also a standard fare on many diner menus, especially in the Mid-Atlantic, but has become harder to find in chain restaurants that serve breakfast.

Finally, both the Esskay Meat Company of Baltimore and Knauss Foods make a refrigerated version of creamed chipped beef which can be easily microwaved.

[8] According to We Are The Mighty, the dish first appears in the 1910 Manual for Army Cooks, where a recipe for feeding 60 men can be found as below:[9] Ingredients used: 15 pounds chipped beef 1½ pound of fat, butter preferred 1¼ lbs flour 2 12-oz cans of evaporated milk 1 bunch parsley ¼ oz pepper 6 quarts beef stock

[11] In his World War II book Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose evokes the military basics: At the end of May, the men of Easy packed up their barracks bags and … [took] a stop-and-go train ride to Sturgis, Kentucky.

They marched out to the countryside and pitched up tents, dug straddle trenches for latrines, and ate the Army's favorite meal for troops in the field, creamed chipped beef on toast, universally known as SOS, or Shit on a Shingle.