MRE/Meals Ready to Eat or Cook your own

golok · Apr 10, 2003

I wonder which is better when you are out jungle trekking for a week or so or you are somewhere in the outdoors with a bunch of guys.

I know some people combine the two MREs and some cook-it-yourself stuff. But those MRE stuff always strikes me as tasteless but nutritious. They basically serve one function - keep the eater alive.

Self-cooked meals are of course better in terms of taste and being fresh but such meals entail some hard work on your part.

But what is the advice from the experts?

numberthree · Apr 10, 2003

I'm no expert, and I've been known to enjoy and carry MREs, but I prefer to cook my own or carry dehydrated food due to weight considerations. MREs are heavy, as they contain lots of water. I can carry a week's worth of staples or dehydrated for the same weight as a couple of days of MREs.

pict · Apr 10, 2003

MRE's are easy to use and not too bad if you have enough Tabasco. If you want to make them go farther you can add 5 minute instant rice and a few packets of instant oatmeal. That way one MRE can do for both breakfast and dinner. I try to arrainge things so all I ever have to do is boil water. Mac

marsupial · Apr 10, 2003

I love MRE'S and find them very tasty as well as full of cal's.I carry them on short day hikes usually as I wont be carrying much gear and weight is not a consideration.They are fast and just plain fun to open as you never know what youll get.I've been known to sit around the house and eat one,I luv em but then again I like a lot of weird things like sleepin in 20 below weather and bein wet and miserable,go figure,to each his own I guess.

Rainmaker870 · Apr 11, 2003

During last year's Elk season, my foursome hunted from a drop camp for 10 days. We took MRE's, and filled in around them with fresh trout, heart, liver, backstrap and grouse. We could afford the weight of cases and cases of MRE's 'cause the mules did all the work; I usually had one MRE, a bag of homemade jerky and some dried fruit stashed in my daypack; nibbling along all day on the jerky and fruit translated into "I could care less if I eat dinner or not, but it's cold, dark and my feet hurt so pass me that jug of Single Malt."

I think MRE's are WAY too heavy to serve as sole sustenance over a period of several days, but only when you have to continually carry everything you need. When I'm out on a backpacking trip I usually carry one or two (3?) "just in case," and supplement them with fish, squirrels, rabbits, birds, etc (in season or out, I must confess, but at that point I'm just another member of the food chain and don't give it another thought) also the quintessential jerky and dried fruit. What I find is that other than sleeping bag, tent/bivvy and water, most of my carrying weight winds up being food - kinda sucks, which is why I take a .22 pistol and fishing pole along for the ride. The freeze-dried stuff is a good alternative, but it's about as bulky as an MRE (just lighter.)

phatch · Apr 11, 2003

For short trips, MREs can be lighter. The break even point is at about 2.5 days. Beyond that, dehydrated/freeze dried food with the appropriate cooking gear is usually lighter.

I find most dehydrated/freezedried food to taste better than MREs, but is a bit more work and time consuming to prepare. MREs are also very high sodium which is an issue for me personally, but not for most people.

I do like the MRE style pound cakes and cheese/ condiment packs. Those often find their way into my pack for longer trips.

Phil

Andrew Lynch · Apr 11, 2003

I don't know much about how efficient they are to carry, but MRE's are NOT BAD. When you're hungry, they taste fantastic, and there's a lot of variety to them.

beezaur · Apr 11, 2003

I carry the lightest weight food I can (ramen, instant oatmeal, etc.) for hikes, figuring no more than 1 lb of food per day. But I do treat myself to an MRE entree every day or every other day. After carrying a 30 lb pack all day up and down thousands of feet of elevation, the entrees are well worth the weight. One big bunus for me is that you can eat them without cooking - part of the treat is that you can plop down at the top of a ridge and dig in without setting up a stove, etc. Sometimes I even leave my stove, gas, and cookware at home because I have MRE entrees in my food bag.

Scott

Erasmus · Apr 15, 2003

What's better? The RainMaker had it right.

What do I do, though? I carry one or two MRE's along on backpacking trips, along with freezedried, plus gorp and tea bags.

I mainly eat the (hideous) freezedried food. The military stuff is too heavy to eat much of. It has two primary uses, for me. If the weather cr@ps out at 12,000 feet and I can't cook, or I get diarhea, I eat the MRE. MRE's are no-cook, and have a reasonable ability to "slow down" my digestive tract! Hideous freezedried improves radically with hot sauce, though.

Your best option is to take along all fresh food. But this is also the heaviest option. You may want to look up "Expedition Cooking" on the internet, to see how well fed people operate.

Cheers