MREs

K Williams

K Williams

Joined
Nov 17, 1998
Messages
3,295
I just tried an MRE that I got from a guy at work. Beef w/mushrooms in sauce and yellow & wild rice. It looks nasty, but tastes good. I mixed the beef w/mushrooms together with the rice. Added some black pepper and Tabasco. Then I nuked it for one minute. Tastes good to me. I don't know what everyone's been complaining about...
 
The complaint aint that it tastes bad... the complaint is that there's limited menus... and as the luck of the draw goes, you can conceivably spend days in the field eating the same exact same meal over and over again, especially when you're on someone's sh*tlist.
 
I'm with melancolymutt. That said, anything that comes to hand when I've not eaten in several days is damn good. And that said, i'd never eat one of those things willingly while at home.
-carl
 
This will be my 11th year in the U.S. Army & MREs are pretty good, especially compared to when I just got in!
 
This is why the Brits carry curry powder - does not matter what menu you get - it always tastes the same!

Regards,

Ed
 
MRE's are a luxury item compared to some military food around the world. Here in Brazil thy issue "ration". It comes in a block and resembles dog food, no cooking necessary, just chokle it down and keep moving. Mac
 
I had one of them Irish Rations once... bought it at Silverman's on a London trip just to see what the "other guys" ate. The electrolyte drink was horrendous, but the butterscotch dumplings were very nice, but the "Bangers and beans" must have been an acquired taste...

BTW, what the heck is a "boiled sweet"?
 
A boiled sweet is like a hard piece of sugar, you might call it 'hard candy' or something, im not sure.

if youre familiar with any of these theyre all boiled sweets

mint humbugs, anaseed balls, barley sugars, mint imperials, pear drops, cough candy, worthers originals, gobstoppers

strictly speaking theyre made by melting sugar down and mixing in flavouring and boiling it until the sugar goes rock solid when it cools but its kind of a generic term for a hard sugar sweet
 
Last time I checked there are 24 MRE menus, plus the old Vietnam era LRRP ration is being brought back with I think 12 menus, so there is plenty of variety. Like any ration they are better with spices. I used my salt/pepper/garlic powder mixture along with some green tabasco sauce when I was in Kandahar both on the meals from the mess hall, MRE's and Canadian rations. The breakfasts the mess hall put out were very good, for the other meals it was MRE's Candain rations or food we had brought with us. Incidentally the Canadian rations were good, not that much better than MRE's just something different. Rations have come a long way since C rations and only 12 menus, but nothing like a can of cold lima beans and salty ham.
 
I give them a "thumbs-up" also. I ate them quite a bit in Gulf War I and most of us preferred MRE's over the half-assed chow hall they eventually set up. My wife even likes them now(kind of!) and we get them every Valentines Day. It started out as a joke when we were first married and has become a strange tradition. Good memories of our early years of marriage when I was active USMC. Nothing like a romantic dinner from a thick plastic bag !
 
Remember these?
35 years old and they still taste as fresh as the day they were canned

fd7e9788.jpg
 
My Son is currently an active duty Marine, and he and all of his buddies call MREs, "Meals Refusing to Exit", because of their tendencies to constipate.
 
I can barely remember what a C-rat tastes like, no I was not in, but my dad was and used to bring them home to us. MelMut we may have to do a little trading once I get back stateside if you still have those rats.

Also CANADIAN RATS ROCK!!! I had a Canadian Master Sergeant give me some and I loved them. They only have a six-month shelf life as opposed to indefintely like ours. They were really good and I just wish I had more of them. I probably would if I wasn't in Japan :)

Take care guys, good thred!
 
My Son is currently an active duty Marine, and he and all of his buddies call MREs, "Meals Refusing to Exit", because of their tendencies to constipate.
Click to expand...

That's cause they ain't got no fiber in them! Part of what gives them so much bang (calories and protein) for the space they take up. They will keep you alive, but they sure do need help movin on through the body! Maybe the army should include stool softeners in every meal! That would be pretty funny, but not I suppose at the time!
 
I'd heard/read that the gum has somethng in it that has a laxative effect, maybe Malitol or Sorbitol. Kinda like those hard candies that have the warning on them that "..excessive consumption may have a laxative effect."

Back in the early 70's I was in the local Civil Defense "corp". We were cleaning out a storage facility and found a couple cases of C-rats. I think my sodium went off the charts with the "Beef and Noodles". Like eating straight Mortons. Most of the other stuff tasted like crap too. But, like Mick Dundee said, "tastes like s#!+, but it will keep you alive."
 
Part of my active duty days were spent in development of the MRE (1984-1987). I've stated this here before, but two three star generals (Deptuy Chief of Staff -- Logistics, and TRADOC Deputy Commander for Logistics) put their finger in my chest and said, "Captain, the troops want hot sauce. ...and not just any hot sauce, Tobasco hot sauce!!!!!" I saluted, did an "about face" and ran to Natick Labs to make it happen. The Tobasco guys said that Tobasco could not be packaged in the little foil single serve packages for the required three years of storage an MRE might have to endure. It would eat right through the package, so they invented the little 1/8th ounce bottle.

Bruce Woodbury
 
Bladefixation... thanks for the explanation on Boiled Sweets... it make sense...

Angus, I think that the "field kitchens" served T Packs which for some reason just didn't taste as good as the MRE's. My main complaint is that they never seemed to heat them up completely, and if you somehow got a serving that was close to the center of the Tray, then you ate cold. On the plus side, you always seemed to get more chow than in an MRE. It always takes at least 2 to satisfy me, or else, you walked around hungry. That's one reason I carried around smokes even though I didn't indulge. You can always find some poor nicotine addict who will trade something for a pack, and after four or five days in the field, one pack can get you an entire MRE, sometimes two.
 
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