Army working on three-year sandwich

[Mister Frag 0]

Denoir, do you happen to remember which variety of the US MREs you sampled? Or how old they were?

[Guest]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister Frag @ Oct. 31 2002,03:53)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Denoir, do you happen to remember which variety of the US MREs you sampled? Or how old they were?<span id='postcolor'>

No idea. I think I tried three different versions, some with beef another with chicken and I don't remember the third one

I got them from US military personel, so it should be the one that the US military used in 2001.

[Papageorge 0]

Alright Denoir I wasn't going to pull this out but i guess you force me to. My family is not poor trash. In fact it is actualy upper class in terms of Money. I've eaten some of THE TASTIEST Food people can offer. And I Love MREs. SO why don't you check your taste buds.

[Guest]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Papageorge @ Oct. 31 2002,04:02)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Alright Denoir I wasn't going to pull this out but i guess you force me to. My family is not poor trash. In fact it is actualy upper class in terms of Money. I've eaten some of THE TASTIEST Food people can offer. And I Love MREs. SO why don't you check your taste buds.<span id='postcolor'>

Who said anything about money? I even think that field rations in general are more expensive then your average fast-food meal. That doesn't change the fact that people who are forced to eat them tend to hate them very much and are willing to trade them for other countries' field rations under unfavourable trading conditions.

[Warin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Papageorge @ Oct. 31 2002,04:02)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Alright Denoir I wasn't going to pull this out but i guess you force me to. My family is not poor trash. In fact it is actualy upper class in terms of Money. I've eaten some of THE TASTIEST Food people can offer. And I Love MREs. SO why don't you check your taste buds.<span id='postcolor'>

You are one of the touchiest people I have ever seen post on here! Denoir was not implying that your family was either poor, or trashy.

He is expressing his opinion of the MRE of the US forces. If you like them, it's all good, but dont get mad at Denoir for thinking that you are crazy.

[USMC Sniper 0]

One question: would you rather eat McShit's or Americam MRE's.

BTW, what's in the French or Belgian MRE's, your making them sound liek they are very good.

[Guest]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USMC Sniper @ Oct. 31 2002,04)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">One question: would you rather eat McShit's or Americam MRE's.<span id='postcolor'>

McShit any day. You can't compare those two at all. (No, I don't like McShit, in case you were wondering)

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">BTW, what's in the French or Belgian MRE's, your making them sound liek they are very good.<span id='postcolor'>

The French rations are actually standard French cuisine transformed into field rations such as canard Å• l'orange, filet mignon, filet d'agneau etc. Very very tasty (for a field ration)

Edit: You should ask ran for specifics, I am sure that he knows better (and how to spell them <!--emo& )

[bn880 5]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (denoir @ Oct. 30 2002,22:19)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">BTW, what's in the French or Belgian MRE's, your making them sound liek they are very good.<span id='postcolor'>

The French rations are actually standard French cuisine transformed into field rations such as canard Å• l'orange, filet mignon, filet d'agneau etc. Very very tasty (for a field ration)<span id='postcolor'>

Yep, so that's why Ran went into the military... cuisine to go, shooting and eating at the same time... heck what fun.

[Assault (CAN) 1]

No mention of Canadian rations?

I have heard a bunch of different opinions about different Armies' rations from people I've met. The worst that I have heard of are British rations, but hey, at least they come with tea.

I like our rations, each meal is identical in design: 1 main meal, 1 dessert (always fruit), and assorted soup (Lipton), cereal, and snacks. The type of meal depends on which meal it is you have ie: breakfast, or lunch/dinner.

Alot of the stuff in it is commercialy bought, I get alot of chocolate bars ('Coffee Crisp' and stuff like that) and instant coffee or hot chocolate (Nescafe). The desserts are all fruit and include: Sliced Pears, peaches, apple sauce, and fruit cocktail. As for the main meal there is stuff like: Fish w/lemon sauce, Salmon steaks, macaroni and cheese, franks and beans, canaloni in rosee sauce, ham steak, and so on.

Hungry yet?

My only objection is the bread. It is more dense than D.U., and dry as hell, and it leaves a sugary aftertaste. On the plus side it comes with honey, peanut butter, and/or jam.

I could have sampled some MRE's when we go to the U.S. to train, however, this years excersise was cancelled due to lack of funds.

Oh well, thats Canada for ya'

Tyler

[Mister Frag 0]

Denoir, here are two of my favorite MREs -- they aren't bad at all:

Anyway, I would welcome a cold sandwich MRE, which is what the thread was originally about. Living in California we get some pretty hot weather, and there is nothing more draining than a hot meal on a hot day, or eating something that's supposed to be eaten hot when it isn't heated.

[Warin 0]

I've eaten 80's vintage canadian ration packs (Not recently.. back in the 80's) and they were mostly tasty.  Better than crap fast food, but not as good as an average restaurant.

I cant find anywhere around here that sells MRE packs from any nation, so I cant even venture an opinion.  But then, I am not a picky eater..

So as a test, all you military folk send me half a dozen of your MRE-equivalents and I will give them an objective taste test the next time I go camping.

[Warin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister Frag @ Oct. 31 2002,04:30)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Anyway, I would welcome a cold sandwich MRE, which is what the thread was originally about. Living in California we get some pretty hot weather, and there is nothing more draining than a hot meal on a hot day, or eating something that's supposed to be eaten hot when it isn't heated.<span id='postcolor'>

This would actually be something of a miracle for a lot of areas. A small pre-packaged sandwich that wouldnt need refrigeration or heating would be a boon to all sorts of labourers who cant stop to work... and dont have easty access to cold storage.

One summer I worked fighting fires, and most lunches ended up being worse than mush after sitting in the warmth of the back of a van for several hours. These things, even if a little less tasty than something made fresh, would give a large number of crews the nutrition needed in some very bad situations.

[Harnu 0]

I've never had an MRE, hey, anyone wanna send one to my house?

[acidcrash 0]

the british rations ive tried were pretty nasty, i (supposedly) had hot chocolate that looked like someone shat in a pan of water, some form of biscuit that was hard as rock...nearly inedible...and to this day im still not sure what the "food" was i had, it was yellow, cripsy, and tasted crap(some helpfull prat stuck a label over the name)...i fully intend to never touch the stuff again unless its improved upon (not all that hard to do)

edit: typos

[FallenPaladin 0]

In the Bundeswehr (german army) we had "emergency rations" which included cake that was so hard that you could use it for making fire!!

...or killing your enemy by throwing it

[DarkLight 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ran @ Oct. 30 2002,02:12)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">never ever leave food anywhere in bad conditions for a long time

food is ment to be eaten , not to develop mold or bacterias<span id='postcolor'>

I usually just find big balls of green/white hair under my bad. Basically that once was that sandwich that i was eating when i fell asleep

[Balschoiw 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">which included cake that was so hard that you could use it for making fire!!

<span id='postcolor'>

It were cookies if I remember right. Put some shoe polish on them put them into an empty tin. Add a textile strip from gun cleaning and you have got a lamp.

BTW any army member that had to eat rations for more than 3 months, daily, will keep his nose out of these packages whenever possible. I see that it may give some guys an "Army feeling" when they pack the boxes out and go for camping, but anyone who had to eat these crap for a longer period will deny it. It´s kind of military fashion but not for the taste of it. I really prefer missions with proper cooked food. The mood within the troops goes down with the quality of the food. So every nation tries to build field kitchens wherever possible. There must be a reason for it.

We once had a modification of our EPA´s. They took out the chocolate, cause it has turned grey . They substituted it with a little nut-package. When we opened them bugs came creeping out. No joke. There are insect eggs in almost every nut package, but the heat in the desert speeded up their growth. So we had nuts with bugs.

[KingBeast 0]

The British Rations i had were generally not nice. I think most squaddies get rations that are 3 or 4 years past their sell by date, but that doesnt mean the newer ones taste any different

There were good old beens in a tin, a can of meat (smelled like dogfood, had lumps of jelly, made me feel ill just sniffing it.) I think a bag of dumplings in syrup? Something like that. The chocolate and biscuits i found very tasty, especially the garibaldis (biscuits with little bits of fruit (raisins?) in them.

However as already said, its a novelty to have these MRE's and ration packs, and it might "seem" fun to go out camping for a week with these "army foods!" but when there is nothing to eat other than these no frills foods, you wont be very appreciative of the novelty value

I expect they are so cheap to produce that they are of negative cost, I expect that the army are probably paid to take the meals off of the caterers hands

[FallenPaladin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Balschoiw @ Oct. 31 2002,12:00)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">We once had a modification of our EPA´s. They took out the chocolate, cause it has turned grey  <span id='postcolor'>

I thought that time that chocolate had to be grey! And I ate it!!!

Yuk...

[ran 0]

yeah , denoir is right

french rations are tasty , tastier than most of the others , but i frankly wouldn't eat them at home when i can have fresh food

in french rations , we generally have a cold vegetables and tuna salad , a "combat packed piece of french gastronomy"

i think that denoir tried the canned ones , but we also have dry meals we put water in them

we also have small things such as chewing gums and other little cakes mainly coming from the civilian market

i sometimes think that the ration's food is better than the mess one

[ran 0]

dehydrated , that's the word

french rations aren't like the US MRE's , they're perishable really fast compared to all the other countries' rations

[IceFire 0]

Hmm, I ate MRE's before and I thought that they weren't so bad. In fact I liked them. It was cool eating real army food!

I especially liked the chocolate cooky. It was a cooky with an outer layer of chocolate. Very crisp. The fortified snack bread was good too. I didn't like the potatoes and beans that much. But the mexican rice, and the beef chili wasn't bad.

Hey, anyone know what those two small green squares are that are wrapped in the plastic? They look like candy or something.

[ran 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (IceFire @ Oct. 31 2002,13:30)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Hmm, I ate MRE's before and I thought that they weren't so bad.  In fact I liked them.   It was cool eating real army food!<span id='postcolor'>

it is not cool to eat military food at each lunch for 3 months , you can trust me , i've experienced it myself

after , let's say 2 weeks of continuous use of those rations , they become tasteless and start to disgust you

[cam0flage 0]

I got my piece of meals in the Finnish Defence Forces during my nine month service, and I really have to admit that the rations did suck. So called "combat rations" had some decent chocolate, bread and patée. Basically enough food for 24 hours. Most of the foods were basic soups and porridge you can find from the stores. I remember eating some tasty Knorr curry chicken in a snowfall last february. The food from field kitchen was usually pretty weird, our cooks put everything they could find into the food, which often resulted in a very disgusting mess. The cooks also had a bad habit of stealing all the chocolates and puddings, which made the basic jaegers very angry

I think it's true that food raises morale I don't remember anything sweeter than eating chocolate and smoking cigarettes in a warm tent with stove while it was raining outside.

How are the rations in other armies, are they "army manufactured" or are they just meals available from a normal store?

[Mister Frag 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (cam0flage @ Oct. 31 2002,08:06)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The cooks also had a bad habit of stealing all the chocolates and puddings, which made the basic jaegers very angry <span id='postcolor'>

My advice to the cooks -- don't piss off the guys with the guns!

By the way, there is a persistent rumor going around the US armed forces that MRE isn't an acronym for "Meal, Ready to Eat", but "Meal Rejected by the Enemy".