Meat and Biscuit Rolls (Beef, Lamb, Pork, Veal, or Smoked Ham)

Recipe No. 320 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Meat. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

• Bread crumbs — 3 pounds
• Onions, chopped — 2 pounds (2 No. 56 dippers)
• Fat, bacon — 2 pounds (1 No. 56 dipper)
• Meat, cooked, ground — 20 pounds
• Chili powder — 1 ounce (4 mess kit spoons)
• Salt — 4 ounces (8 mess kit spoons)
• Biscuit dough — as needed

Directions

Key ingredients

Bacon Grease

1. Soak bread crumbs in water; press and discard water.
2. Cook onions in fat until brown.
3. Combine meat, bread crumbs, cooked onions, chili powder, and salt; mix well.
4. Prepare rich biscuit dough (recipe No. 26) using 8 pounds (eight No. 56 dippers) sifted flour. Roll into rectangles ¼ inch thick, 8 inches wide by length of baking pans.
5. Spread meat mixture about ½ inch thick over each piece of dough.
6. Roll like jelly roll in length equal to that of pans and seal with water. Place in baking pans.
7. Bake in slow oven (325° F.) about 30 minutes until golden brown.
8. Slice at once into 1-inch slices.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Bread crumbs — 3¾ oz Onions, chopped — 2½ oz Fat, bacon — 2½ oz Meat, cooked, ground — 1 lb 9⅔ oz Chili powder — about ½ tsp Salt — about 2 tsp Biscuit dough — to taste

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 320, Meat. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.