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Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

nytimes.com

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Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#21

Post by aaron695 »

Eating History involved eating decade/century old foods, including Civil War hardtack which is a MRE I guess - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12077068/

There's a lot of overlap once you realise food doesn't go off if it's not starting fresh, then who cares about years, decades, centuries. Technically MRE's are about weight and size, but people often see them as long lasting even though all processed foods are.

As we get shut into our homes more, it will be interesting to see if the tech gets used by civilians, cheap posted foods, compact and light weight.

Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#23

Post by UncleEntity »

jasonladuke0311 wrote: post #13

Maybe I’m crazy but I loved a lot of MREs, even after eating them for weeks on end.

Try eating them for six months straight…

Mostly, the cooks did their best to give us one hot meal a day for a good bit of that.

The first gulf war it was a couple months straight with no hot meals and the relatively bad older MREs, lots of fun.

Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#24

Post by chiph »

jimmygrapes wrote: post #3

Can't read due to pay wall but I'm kind of offended by the headline. MREs have gotten better over the years, give or take a few missteps, and haven't been anywhere near bad (yes, even veggie omelet can be salvaged) for decades. The current lineup[0] is downright decadent, at least in the US, and has been for longer than any writer at NYT has been alive. [0]: https://www.mreinfo.com/mre-menus-2021/

I haven't tasted the delights of the veggie omelet yet. But the dried pork patty we had in the mid 1980's was horrific. This was before the flameless ration heaters, so your choice was to hydrate it with cold water, or break pieces off and place it in your mouth & allow your saliva to reconstitute it. It smelled like cat food, IIRC.

Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#25

Post by sbierwagen »

ravenstine wrote: post #4

That pound cake that comes with many MREs is one of the best things I've ever tasted. It actually has a kind of fakey/chemically flavor to it (if I remember it's usually apple flavor?), but for some reason it's still good, and the moistness and texture of the cake is exceptional. I wish they just sold those pound cakes by themselves.

Here you go: https://www.mredepot.com/MRE-Vanilla-Pound-Cake-p/aq0005.htm

Annoyingly expensive per-calorie, of course.

Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#27

Post by dmoy »

dikei wrote: post #16
iszomer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love this guy's channel. He's the only guy I've seen who has the guts to eat MRE's dated since WWII and perhaps older. The most recent I've seen was him comparing MRE's from the PRC (yes, China), Taiwan, USA, Russia, etc.

I remember Steve video about China's MRE where he had stomach problem after eating. Eat some biscuit from WW1-era: totally fine, eat some chow mein from PRC's MRE: instant diarrhea

I've had Chinese MREs, once. It was the worst food I've ever tasted. Someone in the family had a can from former prc military service.

I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs.

I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies.

They're actually not as bad now as they used to be. The new replacement for thin wheat bread is like actually edible and doesn't break your teeth.

Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#28

Post by tyingq »

jimmygrapes wrote: post #3

Can't read due to pay wall but I'm kind of offended by the headline. MREs have gotten better over the years, give or take a few missteps, and haven't been anywhere near bad (yes, even veggie omelet can be salvaged) for decades. The current lineup[0] is downright decadent, at least in the US, and has been for longer than any writer at NYT has been alive. [0]: https://www.mreinfo.com/mre-menus-2021/

In the 90's they had the "Dehydrated Pork Patty". I am not surprised this set them back for the next 30 years.

Though the British troops near us had some kind of canned cod fish in tomato sauce that was worse.

Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#29

Post by mbg721 »

nimbius wrote: post #26

Ah the venerable MRE. We had a nickname for these in the Army: Meals Refusing to Exit. It was also fabled that the beans and weenies meal could transform any infantryman into an airborne through flatulence alone.

I mean, excessive regularity during combat could be a liability, couldn't it?

Re: Unloved by generations of soldiers, the MRE finds a fan base

#30

Post by flenserboy »

iszomer wrote: post #8
drmpeg wrote: post #2

Steve1989MREInfo https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA Nice!

I love this guy's channel. He's the only guy I've seen who has the guts to eat MRE's dated since WWII and perhaps older. The most recent I've seen was him comparing MRE's from the PRC (yes, China), Taiwan, USA, Russia, etc.

The oldest ration — not MRE — I've seen him eat was from the Boer War; the oldest piece of food was from the US Civil War. Steve1989 is a treasure.
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