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MRE's..... anyone?

RickeyM

RickeyM

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
While technically not about cooking, this is about food so I post it here.
(Mods please move if this is the wrong place for this)

I recently had a MRE. Beef-a-Roni and something or other. It was actually better than I thought it would be. The Beef-a-Roni was a lil' dry and I could have seasoned it up some but I'd try one again. I'm curious now and want to try some more. These meals aren't "home cookin' " good but if I were deployed in the field or out camping, I'd scarf one up in a minute.

Anybody else have experience with this grub? Can anybody give us a comparison between the military and civilian versions?
 
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Back in college when I had very very little $ my buddy who was in the Rangers passed around a trash bag at the end of maneuvers and everyone tossed in their left over MRE's. He just slapped a piece of paper with my address on the trash bag and it made it to me. Mostly Chili and Beef Stew as I recall. I thought they were pretty good they had either a cornflake bar or toffee disc for dessert which you could break your teeth on.
 
Ate them for six years. BTW.....The rumors about metal shavings in the beans from a damaged machine in the mid 80s are true. We pulled them out with a magnet.

Once we got Chicken-ala-King for 20+ days in a row. 12 meals in a case and every one of them was the same.

I got sick of them but in the field they work great. There was a novelty in eating them that wore off fast. I know they have changed the formula but back then the cracker was very important. It was heavily fortified. Basically a vitamin/mineral supplement. Seldom ever ate them all at once. Usually packed one in my pockets and ate it over a few hours as we moved.

I know guys who keep them in their vehicle in case of emergency. Getting stuck in the snow for the night here is a reality. I keep US Coast Guard emergency bars instead.

Back then there were no civilian versions. Just Mil surplus. I think the difference now is the packaging.
 
Viet Nam-era veteran here, we were pre- MRE, had to subsist on C-Rats, which had their own particular charm...."Ham and Motherfuckers" (ham & Lima beans) was the most despised item on the menu....

I keep about a 30-day supply of commercial-grade MREs on hand for a SHTF situation, but haven`t actually eaten any yet....
 
Yep a VN vet that saw the transition from C rats to MRE's. Have to say MRE is the way to go. During Desert Storm we had combined many of them for gourmet food fests. Used a lot of the Tabasco sauce. Didn't like the MRE's because they didn't have cigarettes. Usually got 4 to a pack.
:thmbsp:
 
Also a VN vet who saw the transition from C-Rats to MRE's, but we also got to experience LRP's. At least the LRP packs still had the ciggy packs ( which we had to limit use of... ). As long as we had the gen trailer behind the jeep we could carry C-Rats pretty easily and preferred them.
 
hrballenger said:
Also a VN vet who saw the transition from C-Rats to MRE's, but we also got to experience LRP's. At least the LRP packs still had the ciggy packs ( which we had to limit use of... ). As long as we had the gen trailer behind the jeep we could carry C-Rats pretty easily and preferred them.
Click to expand...

Same here. The LRPs weren't too bad.
 
A Natl Guard buddy of mine told me they are not only designed to be calorie-dense, but low fiber to reduce the need to poop in combat. Never had one myself.
 
Marantz Fan said:
. . .

Once we got Chicken-ala-King for 20+ days in a row. 12 meals in a case and every one of them was the same.
. . .
Click to expand...

We must have been in the same unit :) To this day I will not eat anything that looks like ala-king or cacitorre (the t-rations we always seemed to get).
 
My experience with MREs is limited to backpacking. Years ago, me and some friends backpacked the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan's upper peninsula. We subsisted on MREs for a weekend in the back woods. As I recall, some were actually quite tasty. Maybe it was the spaghetti? I do remember it coming with a VERY small bottle of tabasco sauce. Joke was, the very small amount of toilet paper included in them was all you needed because, well, things became quite compact.

I found one that I never used on the trip last month in my parent's basement. I believe it was ham. Opened it up for the hell of it...not a pretty sight (or smell!) These do have a shelf life!
 
I ate them for 9 months in Desert Shield / Storm. Rumour had it the elastic tabs on our camo-caps were specifically for those tiny tabasco bottles. Most of the menu combos weren't bad, but there was ONE that not even the scavenger cats would eat. I think it was the ala-king.
 
Oh the ala King! Seemed like every other one you got was that! Also remember trading the coffee and gum to get extra Tabasco, took about 5 to make the ala king taste good enough to eat. Buddy brought me one on the newer one , had a little warming system in it and stuff , it was really good. And thanks to all my buddies who served. 2/113 49 aromored division "raring to go" .
 
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