A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder

Troops from nearly 50 lands dine on combat meals in Afghanistan — each reminding them of where they’d rather be.

Article: http://nyti.ms/cDZLU2

Interactive (View contents of 14 of the military rations): http://nyti.ms/cXQGSn

I was camping this last week with my brother's family, and introduced my Niece (8) and Nephew (10) to MRE's (civilian version). They loved them!

goatrider, my nephew is the pickiest eater i know and he'll eat anything if it's an MRE.

Great find, Doug. Though, the "displays" of each nation's ration don't exactly make one very hungry... <grin!>

I recall the first generation of MREs. To a man, we woulda rather had C's. The two dehydrated meat patties were horrid. The fruits, simply awful. Plus, howinthehell were we spozed to carry all the water and who had the time to rehydrate that crap. I used to live on candybars/beef jerky/cans of fruit.

I are enuf of them in the Sinai. I then avoided them where ever and when ever I could.

The eleventh General Order for military personnel is to complain about the chow, a directive I followed faithfully during my time in service (the C ration era). We consumed, once a month, left over C rats from the Late Unpleasantness (the Korean Conflict).

I would have to say that current MRE's are pretty decent, albeit a bit on the heavy side. Of course, anything can taste pretty good when your options are severely limited....

Good to see that the British Multi Climate rations are some of the best. Decent tea Typhoo Tea bags (recently gave a buddy some of the older British Army instant tea and he said he liked it!! ), lifeboat matches and water purification tablets. I still would have liked to have seen the old fashioned Fruit-S Biscuits still in there though, as they are pretty tasty with a nice hot cuppa tea. (which only US folks can dream about. No tea in the the MREs. It doesn't take much to slip a couple of tea bags in there, though how you get a decent cuppa with a chemical reheat bag is a little beyond me though )

http://rations.vesteyfoods.com/ration_packs.asp?ptypeID=4&packID=19

Even direct from the manufacturer the UK Multi climate rations are a little on the expensive side.

The poor Ukrainians (and thats the officer ration )

The Russian ration is apparently even worse, which is why all the Russian enlisted men have nice shiny coats and wet noses.

Looking at the various nation's rations, beyond the dog's dinner appearance of certain dishes laid out on a stark white plate, it strikes me that I could get along quite well on any of them. I'm not sure about the tuna pate (Norway), and kimchi (Korea) is always questionable until determined well or foul by taste, but I've cooked up and eaten worse.

There are some oddities. The US ration seems to be the only one that includes toilet paper. Single-use toothbrushes, three, in each Italian ration. The "sponge" in the Danish kit looks suspiciously like a green nylon scrubber and I'm not sure how it fits in.

It also strikes me as odd that most of the rations come with matches. There are precious few military uses for matches and fewer people smoke. Matches seem like an atavism when a miniature Bic ($.75) would keep you in lights for a month assuming a pack-a-day habit.

That said I really do like the 'lifeboat' style matches that come in the British ration. If you're going to go to the trouble of packing matches make them good ones.

I also like the plastic cylinder, looks like a miniature match safe, that comes with the Australians ration. Looks like quite a useful object. Perfect for medications, needles and a little thread, or other small objects. Stuff a couple of hooks and split-shot inside and wind the outside with line and you have a little fishing kit for recreation or survival where fish are a sure thing. Make a fishing kit small and light enough in a compliant environment and it might be worth it.

The sesame bars in the Polish kit are an excellent ration choice. Loads of calories and very tasty. Reminds me to stock up on some for my kits. Oh, and I agree about the teabags. Wonder why they're not in all the rations?

I remember the 1st Gen.MRE's & B-units which were the latest rations,just before the MRE's,One in particular was-Pork in water,which came in a small can,when it was opened It Stunk like Swine Soup(Pig poop),It was accompanied alway's with Cracklin'Cornbread,which was Hard asa Rock,& Drier than a witches,uh er,It was Real dry.The Idea was to break up the Cornbread & Mix it in with the Pork in water,& You had to make Sure,you didn't spill any of it,upon your BDU's as It would Stink for day's on end.Dehydrated Strawberry ice cream was Currency,Vanilla/Chocolate,not so much,& The oatmeal chocolate bars we used as candles,they burned a long time!We Never ate the Charms candies,they usually burned in the Dung buckets in hopes of making it smell better!LRRP rations were the Best,they only came in 1 flavor-Putrid,but it was easy to gobble down that loaf of ? whatever it was,& It came with Tasters Choice coffee,& Grape/Lime Kool-aid,& Cadbury's shortbread cookies-also Currency!MRE's nowaday's are Primo!

'Meals are designed to match the taste and cultural requirements of each country'

Given the likely enemies in the near future the Brit's addiction to lamb curry looks like being a useful adaptation !

The Multiclimate rations do have tissue paper as shown here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxdVCqf2a8Q

The US MRE is a little difficult to compare with the Multiclimate ration (itself a replacement for the older 24hr ORP) because 1 MC Ration (4200Kcal) is equivalent to 3 MREs (1250 Kcal) in terms of calories.

Does the MRE have specific breakfast, lunch and dinner options considering that 3 MREs are required per day?

3 MREs per day also looks to be quite heavy and bulky compared to the older 24hr ORP (which weighs in around 1.7kg).

The cost of MREs seem to quite expensive as well. I believe that each MRE costs the Pentagon around $7.25 and as 3 are required per day per man, which works out at $22.75 The UK MC ration can be purchased for £14.58 each or about $22.40. So the costs are pretty close for the MC and MRE rations.

An equivalent cost for a case of 12 MREs will typically be around $100 compared to 4 MC rations direct from the manufacturer $98.40 (including delivery)

There appears to be other good reasoning not to purchase MREs for a survival period lasting more than a few weeks.

http://survivalacres.com/information/mres.html

Didn't Elvis pass away tragically suffering from the same affliction.

That English one looks great.

Are they all using the US method of heating ?

here's a MRE in "real life" topping a Mac and Cheese dinner.



this meat loaf with mushrooms is one of three MRE's i'll take on a wilderness canoe trip.heavy but a nice change from freeze dry something and rice.they are sort of "feast" dinners at the start,middle and end of the trip.pork riblet and chicken are two other favorites.mango tang with rum and a cookie rounds the meal off.i was in the C-Ration Army and these are of course a real meal and just not something to eat because you have too.
this is an easy meal to make.the MRE is heated in boiling water in the big section of the cook kit and let to sit while the Mac and Cheese is made in the small one and the meat loaf dumped on top.it may not look like much but i wolfed that down in short order.

Gotta hand it to the British; they have their priorities right:

From Wikipedia:
>Like every British tank since the Centurion, and most other >British AFVs, Challenger 2 contains a boiling vessel (BV) for water which can be used to brew
>tea, produce other hot beverages and heat boil-in-the-bag meals >contained in ration packs.[8] This BV requirement is general for >armoured vehicles of the British Armed Forces, and is one such >requirement almost unique to the Armed forces of the UK.

Here; everything stops for tea!
qjs

Love the 11th General Order.

I have not had newer MREs. I got out back when the 1st gen came on the scene and I must say I rather preferred the C-rations. We ate them for days on end, often times for all three meals. I can't say I'd go to a restaurant that serves them, but we found ways to make them passable. Short straw drew the beans and franks!!! Pound cake was highly prized!

Now that my diet has been transformed into herbivory, I don't guess I have much in the way of MRE options...but I've never really looked.

MREs aren't bad. Taste varies between passable to not bad.

Cost is high but is moderated by the fact that MREs are roughly 1000 calories each. Doing heavy labor over a high duration three a day at 3000 calories is about right. It might be a bit low if your working exceptionally hard or are fighting extreme cold. Three MREs and a couple of snacks should cover it. Most people don't need that sort of calorie intake and three MREs will cause them to gain weight.

Most people can get by quite well, even doing moderately hard physical labor, on two and a snack that work out about 2500 calories. Typical sedentary Americans, who have to set aside time to work out to get exercise, can get along fine on one fully configured MRE, main dish, two side dishes and desert for dinner; a fruit bar, oatmeal and coffee for breakfast; jerky and trail mix for lunch. A freeze-dried main dish, available as a separate item, might substitute for several smaller items.

MREs store well, how long depends on temperature:
Sustained Storage Temperatures °F Estimated Shelf-life (in months):
120° - 1 month ..........10° - 5 month
100° - 18 month ........ 90° - 30 month
80°- 48 month ........... 70° - 66 month
60° - 84 month .......... 50° to 33 ° -96 month

From: http://www.sopakco.com/sopakco/sopakco_faq.html#

Hey Art,You forgot to factor in Combat,of which The MRE is intended,1st & foremost!

You might find this Link useful, Also any mre with tomato sauce is good.

Lee

Yeti -

Beanie meatball was one of the best Cs going. Only tuna or chicken boned was better. Melt your cheese into the beanies and add some tabasco and you had a feast. You could keep the beef and rocks, pork slices and ham slices - blech.

I would add the chicken to some ramen, with some dried onion I carried most of the time - pure gourmet.

At one point I had a cookbook from Tabasco about how to doctor up Cs. I also think they had one for MREs IIRC. Wonder where it go to?

RE working had and calories
I'm a big fat guy now, but I remember one camping trip back when I was oh, 17 or so - we were not car camping etc, we were backpacking, and couldn't really afford freeze dried stuff, so it was store dry stuff, and cooking time - 2 week trip, and I'd say we averaged 2-3k elevation change a day, with 50+lb packs on - Hike 10-12 hours/day, with elevation changes, often bushwacking, and gad do you burn calories

I know every chance we had to make a side trip to get supplies, we did. The middle weekend, Mom and dad came up with like 10 lbs of lasagna, they ate one small piece each, and the 3 of us who were hiking at the reast, then asked for a lift into town to get some more food

I think the least any of us lost was 10 lbs, and I lost like 20, and I don't even want to KNOW how many calories/day I was eating - 3K was probably low

A 17 year boy can probably eat half a cow... they're still growing. Add heavy physical exercise to the equation and he can probably eat the whole cow. But you'd better stop eating like that when you grow older ...


Eating enough is actually a problem on polar expeditions. The combination of heavy sledge pulling for 12 hours and the increased energy consumption at rest (to a certain degree, the body compensates for low temperatures by burning more calories) means that they just can't eat enough. Børge Ousland and Mike Horn stuffed themselves with about 7K each day on their way to the North pole (in 1996) - and still lost a lot of weight.

Not everyone has the US-style chem heaters- look for the scrubbies and the esbit tabs.

I wish the comparison pictures had pointed out that some packets were a full day's rations and others a single meal. I saw this article in another venue, and people were making comments to the effect that (a) some nations starve their troops or (b) other troops must be shaped like bowling balls. *growls*

The person who did that article got a lot of info and help from mreinfo.com

I'm also a member of the forum there. Lots of great information on all sorts of rations.

There was a question about use the FRH (Flameless Ration Heater) to make hot water. The newer MREs include a Hot Beverage bag that can be filled and placed in the FRH to heat up.

There are no specific breakfast MREs. Well, there is one or two menus that a bit more oriented towards breakfast.

There is a newer ration call the FSR (First Strike Ration) which is meant to be a limited use 24hr ration. It takes the place of 3 MREs.

The French RCIRs are actually quite good... Another 24hr ration. They come with a little Esbit emergency stove for reheating.

The British 24hr Rations are typically placed in boiling water to be reheated. They don't come with a specific way of heating.

Homemade MRE v Mil Spec MRE

I haven't seen the article before posting, but were the FSR's included? I've seen them piecemeal for sale (protein shake and granola-type bars), and they're pretty calorie dense at about 400 Cal/per. I used them as my emergency food when I had a go-bag during my month in AK.

The FSRs were not mentioned in that article...