Dried Beef Casserole

Ingredients:

2 C uncooked elbow macaroni
2 C milk
1/4 lb. dried beef - shredded
1/2 lb cheddar cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
4 hard-cooked eggs
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup, undeluted


Directions:

Combine all ingredients in large baking dish and refrigerate 12 to 14 hours or overnight. Top with dried bread crumbs or Panko and bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Serve with crisp green salad or fruit - this is delicious.

Sure sounds interesting. But I can't do that. I can get 2 nice rib eye steaks for the same money as dry beef. It is very costly here. CF

Hi CF - Sorry to hear that about dried beef, especially in Texas, home of the long-horn steer! Here, in New England, one can purchase a small, glaceen envelope of dried beef - the kind one makes creamed chipped dried beef, better know around here as Red Rag Gravey, out of - for less than $2.00. Those little packages are found - here, anyway - in the same section as bologna and other cold cuts which always cost more than the dried beef does! Two rib-eye steaks, on the other hand, could run as high as $12 and up, up, up!! Back when my husband was still in the Navy and we were stationed down in NAS Pennsacola, Fla. I was given that recipe by a co-worker and she told me that one of those little packages of chipped dried beef was all I needed to make the casserole. I recall paying under $1.00 for it at that time. Times certainly change, don't they?

Times do change, and I am not sure I am happy about most of the change.
Guess I am just getting older. Naw, I have so many blessing. CF
The dried beef here is the one in a small jar. I really like the dried beef on toast. I guess I could dry some myself. We make jerky I bet that would work. CF

I should think it would - the jerky, I mean. Just while I think of it, what, specifically, is "hard tack"? I've heard of this in the past and always wondered just what it was. A form of jerky? I figured you'd probably know.
I've read stories of the western cowboys traveling on horseback during the cattle drives with a pocketful of hard tack and biscuits. Does't sound too palateable but when one's hungry I suppose most anything is good eating, huh?

Hard tack is just a really hard bread or cracker. My grandmother used to make one called tea cakes. These were pretty hard but so good. You could carry them in your pocket all day and not lose a crumb. I think it had to do with how long they were baked. She would keep some in a jar with a slice of apple. Because she and my grandfather liked them softer. Here is the recipe. CF
1873 Tea Cakes
Little Mama Bradshaw

1 cup of butter = ½ pound
2 cups sugar
3 eggs beaten lightly
6 table spoon buttermilk
1 scant teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon (ground)
½ teaspoon nutmeg (ground)
¼ teaspoon cardamom (ground)
5 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 deg….
Mix butter and sugar until light. Add eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. Mix soda with buttermilk and add to mixture. Add flour small amount at a time.
May be rolled out or dropped by teaspoon full. Bake in quick oven about 10 min. or until just brown. Makes about 91/2 doz.
This recipe comes from the Bradshaw, Laird, and Herrington Family. 1873 Hardin Co. Texas (Little Mama Bradshaw)
My Grandmother:

CF, thank you so much for sharing this precious recipe. I know everyone's going to enjoy these biscuits a lot! It'll give my kids something constructive to do with their mouths, chewing these! katie