MRE queries for the group

[Todjaeger]

Currently looking investigating MRE's and have some questions for those who have consumed them, and/or manufacture them.

Which particular brands, and/or meals do people prefer?

Are some particular meals noticably better or worse than others?

Are some MRE's better served hot or cold?

Are some MRE's more appetizing in cold (or hot) environments?

I welcome people's input.

-Cheers

 

[AegisFC]

My experience comes from 2001, but the vegetarian MRE's taste better than the "meat" ones.
The three cheese tortellini was by far my favorite. The meatloaf was horrible. Each one also came with hard crackers/bread and some substance that was almost like but wasn't really peanutbutter as well as hot chocolate, some sort of candy and a little bottle of Tobasco sauce.

You might find this helpful.

A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder — M.R.E.s in Afghanistan - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

MRE's from 14 different countries.

 

[PCShogun]

If you are wanting to buy some MRE's that are not surplus military (and technically illegal to resell), the military gets theirs form Ameriqual, Sopakco, and Wornick.

Some good info on MRE's is at
MREInfo.com - Civilian MREs

I've eaten 9 year and older MRE's and they tasted fine. Some of the components may have separated (the jelly was a wet spot and some grape goo) but squishing the pack a few times in your hand will generally reconstitute it, except for the cheese. Nothing will make it taste like cheese as it never tasted like cheese in the first place.

Civilian MRE's typically do not come with the MRE heater, which is a shame. Nearly all the MRE's taste better after having been heated. MRE's have gotten better over the years as soldiers determine which items stay on the menu and which do not. Compare the menu's over the years and you will see the good ones as they have been included year after year.

 

[Gremlin29]

I just ended a 16 month mob and ate more than my fair share of MRE's, First Strike Rations and the dreaded Jimmy Deans (knick name for the packaged box lunch). There are 24 meals, 12 meals in a case. Everyone has their favorite but there are 3 or 4 meals that always end up being left in the case. These are the veggie dishes and the chicken enchilada. I've tried them, they are my least favorite and it seems to be universal. Any of the meals with tomato sauce are okay. All of them taste better heated. I've also noticed that the milkshakes, energy bars and the espreso beans get thrown out more than any other component.

First Strike rations are really bad IMHO. There are only 3 different meals, the lemon pound cake and soft tortillas are the only redeeming items in any of them. After trying them I vowed to never eat another. I think they call them First Strike rations because they strike first, fast and without warning if you know what I mean. :sick One of these is supposed to replace 3 MRE's, they are supposed to be a jumbo "field stripped" MRE. They all have a "sandwich" which is really just a shelf stable bread loaf with a pepperoni stick baked in the middle.

The box lunch everyone calls Jimmy Deans and is the meal soldiers dread getting. These are normally only given out in contonement when it's not convenient to break for a meal. It contains tuna/chicken/seafood salad in a small can, 5 crackers, a small loaf of shelf stable bread, iced tea (it's not iced believe me) peanut brittle, vienna sausages and a package of 4 or 6 fake oreo's. I guess the Army doesn't follow up because if they did they would notice that the peanut brittle and sausages always get thrown in the trash. The could save money by leaving these items out. There's also a small bag of chips (or crisps if you like) but these are usually some weird brand/type that nobody likes.

I wouldn't consider buying surplus MRE's these days. I've seen alot of MRE's stored in connex containers in the desert where the daytime temp in the shade is 130F and the MRE's get funky real fast in those conditions. I opened one up that was only 3 years old and it was definately past it's prime and tasted very weird. If they were stored in a cool dry place they do last alot longer but alot of MRE's came back from Iraq and I wouldn't want to eat one of those.

The MRE's of today are a 100% improvement over what they were 20+ years ago, most of them are pretty decent until you have to start eating them every single day.

 

[PCShogun]

Germlin, thats a great point about the surplus MRE's that we may have on the market now. 100+ heat does not make a great storage environment for a MRE, or anything else for that matter. I think the expiration is 3 years at 80 degrees. Again, I have eaten some pretty old MRE's and not died.

 

[Gremlin29]

By the way that MRE site is pretty cool!

 

[RobWilliams]

Agreed, very good link!

I've been meaning to buy a Brit 24 hour ration pack just to have a look what it'd be like to live on one, they do look pretty good. I've read in a book written by a sniper in Iraq in 2003 (Sniper One - if you're interested, excellent book, includes Johnson Beharry's VC exploits) that one their kitchen and chef got mortared to buggery (Didn't die, almost lost a leg but that was rescued) they thought that their meals were best served all boiled up and chucked in together "with a big dollop of tobasco sauce", would make for an interesting trial I say.

Then in Durants "In the Company of Heroes" i think was the title, he gave us the name for MREs that he says US forces used; Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. Not particularly glamorous :

 

[PCShogun]

LOL, Yeah I remember that description. Some of the early MRE's really were not Ready to Eat without adding boiling water to some of them. I remember this dehydrated Salisbury steak meal. It was like a meat scented brick. You could break of a piece and put it in your mouth. It would then suck in ever ounce of spit in your body while expanding to the consistency of a wet sponge, at which point you could swallow it. It would then continue to expand in your intestines making you feel badly bloated. At this point it would then reconstitute back into its original brick consistency just prior to passing out of your colon.

 

[RobWilliams]

Eugh, sounds delightful

Not sure if i'm allowed to post this link, but i'll take the plunge but I must emphasise that I am in no way linked to this website so i really hope it doesn't get removed for advertising because it's actually a very informative website, I tried trawling google for a comprehensive list but I couldn't

Vestey Foods -24-Hour Ration Packs

It gives the menus for all British 24 hour ration packs for those who are interested.

 

[Todjaeger]

Thanks for the input. Something occurred to me which was that I should clarify the reason for my query. Given events over the last year, and the Federal/State response times in emergencies, my community has been expanding some of their preparations in the event of a local disaster.

I do not not know whom I annoyed, or what I did, but I got 'volunteered' to conduct taste-tests of meals and snacks from several MRE vendors, with the idea being that once the 'best' brand and/or meals are determined, a small stockpile of MRE's could be purchased. Given my desire to spare my digestive system as much as possible...

Thanks again for everyone's input.

-Cheers

 

[NICO]

Great topic! The website is pretty cool too, the French and German MRE's look pretty good.

My 2 cents, served in the late 90s,early 2000s. By the end of my tour, the new MRE's were coming out and where "relatively" decent compared to the ones we had in basic training. I remember the Chinese with dry noodles one being good, there was kind of a chicken a la king that was OK. The number had risen from 6 to 12 or so, plus the new power bars were coming out. The lemon pound cake was good. The vegan(pasta) was coming out, it was ok but just felt so bloated afterwards with that one...

Most of them were edible as long as you warmed them up and didn't look at what you were eating. It made it also a lot easier if you were really hungry and the end of the day (skipped lunch) or had a long road march, then MRE's tasted good just to about everyone, some people still had a hard time with them. The best thing was the heater, saved my butt a few times from freezing when sweating, you can jam the heater between your shirt and jacket. I think the Brits are spot on with having water heaters present in all their vehicles, when something is warm, it's just better and lifts the spirits.

How some people could eat them without warming them up was beyond me! My buddy used to open up the entree and stuff everything, peanut butter, jam, biscuit, dessert... I mean everything that came with the MRE and would eat it like that,cold! Disgusting! I liked to eat all the stuff separate like a regular 3 course meal....One word though of advise, don't forget the TABASCO sauce, without it , MRE's just aren't the same!

Would like to hear experience from civilian MRE's compared to military ones. I do have a question which has always kind of perplexed me when it comes to "fast food ready to eat", why doesn't the military have something like a Ramen soup? Easy to fix, plenty of flavors, who doesn't like Ramen soup?

One thing that helped was we always brought along a ton of civilian food so we didn't have to eat just MRE's and I am sure my unit like most kept a box with the "leftover" stuff from MRE's that you could use with something else.

I agree with the previous comments, MRE's get old to taste real fast, they mess your body up, are super high in sodium and really aren't recommended for long periods of time....

 

[Feanor]

US MREs I like the meatballs marinara ones, the beef enchilada, and the chili mac. Chicken pesto pasta is pretty good if you heat it up. Sloppy joe is good. Veggie omelet is disgusting, as is the beef patty, and in my opinion the pork rib.

My absolute favorite thing out of an MRE are the dairyshakes.

 

[Todjaeger]

So far, the ones I have eaten are Bridgeford MRE's BBQ beef sandwich and French toast. They both were shaped like Hot Pockets and while the French toast one did smell of maple syrup, neither one really tasted like what they were called. In fact, I am not really sure what either tasted like, aside "different". I suppose though that if I had been actually hungry, they would have tasted better.

That and I must remember next time to remove the dessicant packet first, before biting into a sandwich...

-Cheers

 

[lopez]

My experience comes from 2001, but the vegetarian MRE's taste better than the "meat" ones.
The three cheese tortellini was by far my favorite. The meatloaf was horrible. Each one also came with hard crackers/bread and some substance that was almost like but wasn't really peanutbutter as well as hot chocolate, some sort of candy and a little bottle of Tobasco sauce.

You might find this helpful.

A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder — M.R.E.s in Afghanistan - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

MRE's from 14 different countries.

The Australian MRE is for 24 hours is that the case for the others?? because some of the labelling suggests that those were single meals.

 

[Marc 1]

The Australian MRE is for 24 hours is that the case for the others?? because some of the labelling suggests that those were single meals.

That would be why it's known as a 24 hour Ration Pack rather than a Meal Ready to Eat.

My memory of MRE's from 1988 was the overwhelming amount of packaging that was included with just 1 meal.

Learned something else about our allies after Ex Caltrop Force - we seemed to be the only force that made sure we took every skerrick of rubbish with us (only thing left behind of course were the shit pits). At the end of the ex. we went non-tac and emu bobbed former campsites mostly positions occupied by 7th Inf Div (Light) - finding buckets of rubbish. We were always taught never leave rubbish - the enemy can get all sorts of intel from what is left behind - besides - having to emu bob most of the training area after an exercise is the pox.

 

[Gremlin29]

US MREs I like the meatballs marinara ones, the beef enchilada, and the chili mac. Chicken pesto pasta is pretty good if you heat it up. Sloppy joe is good. Veggie omelet is disgusting, as is the beef patty, and in my opinion the pork rib.

My absolute favorite thing out of an MRE are the dairyshakes.

The meatballs and sloppy joe are my favorites, saddly the sloppy joe has been discontinued. As for the shakes, now I know who I can send mine to. LOL

Toadjager, the french toast and bbq beef sandwich are First Strike items, and they are god awful. Both of those items (the french toast has that weird maple gum/jelly filling) are very poor representations of MRE cuisine IMHO.

 

[Feanor]

The meatballs and sloppy joe are my favorites, saddly the sloppy joe has been discontinued. As for the shakes, now I know who I can send mine to. LOL

Chicken with noodles is pretty good too if you heat it up.

 

[Gremlin29]

Chicken with noodles is pretty good too if you heat it up.

You made me go the MRE website to see what's new this year. You are right the chicken with noodles is another one that's edible, I was wrong sloppy joe is still on the menu. I haven't seen or tried the new breakfast meals yet, but they don't look promising. Reminds me of the pancake and sausage on a stick they've started serving in chow halls, sounds good but it's not.