71–80 of 105 posts
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MREs self-heat. Hot food is good for morale and in a disaster situation, instant noodles might be "noodle crackers".
A pocket rocket and canister of isobutane is cheap and will never expire though. Problem solved.
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?
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.
Out of a recent batch, I remember the lemon-poppyseed pound cake being amazing (as in, wouldn't have complained if I'd gotten it in a diner), a cookie that was rather good (actually moist!), and some really good cranberry mix. Also, the First Strike apple cinnamon energy bar was just as good as top-tier civilian energy bars. Entrees were a bit rougher. But as my dad paraphrased re: Boy Scouts, 'Hunger is a helluva sp…
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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…
>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. What's the TCO on using MREs for disaster prep? I did some light research a while ago and figured it was pretty pricey compared to buying traditional nonperishables (eg. instant noodles, canned vegetables, dried beans). Plus, those foods are easier to work into a conventional meal than M…
That being said, MREs are kind of overkill. The US military also uses called first-strike rations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Strike_Ration) each of which are half the weight of the 3 MREs they replace and that are mostly centered around stabilized sandwiches and wraps. The manufacturer of those sandwiches, Bridgford, also sells to the civilian market: https://www.bridgford.com/readytoeat/ If you don't mind the much more limited menu (it's a disaster after all), a case of those sandwiches will keep a person fed for a couple weeks for much less than the cost and space of MREs.
Why doesn’t the US military use Soylent now?
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The Night Watch series books talk about “fake vodka” which I found highly amusing. I assume it’s watered back industrial ethanol?
Normal vodka is diluted industrial ethanol. A very diverse range of spirits are bottled from the same train tanker cars of industrial ethanol, optionally adulterated with flavoring and coloring. I used to have friends that ran a bottling plant for state-wide distribution of several hundred well-known brands. All of their alcohol came from ADM in bulk. Not all spirits are produced this way but the vast majority are. T…
Steve1989MREInfo https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA Nice!
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.
Wornick, which makes most of the real MREs, used to sell a civilian version. Their brand was "MIL-SPEC", and then "Eversafe". Now they don't seem to want to sell those at retail, probably because they normally ship by the shipping container load and the eBay resellers can't handle that much product. Everybody seems to be out of stock on civilian MREs right now, except for resellers who are doubling the price. (Each m…
> expired Was curious about this, as it's something of an open question as to the actual safe "absolutely-by" date (vs the standard date). Turns out, they've been tested to degrade at a rate proportional to temperature. The listed date (3 years?) is essentially 3 years at max temperature. Decrease the temperature (i.e. outside anywhere but the desert), and it stretches significantly. Actually store it somewhere cool…