Emergency Christmas Dinner Review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-mfYXdjNTM

Something must have gone terribly wrong on the 25th December!

It looks to me like a wonderful self heating can of a Turkey version of Dinty Moore Beef Stew. I think the self heating can is a great idea for camping types of commercial C-Rations though.

I dunno, makes some MREs look yummy.

This certainly could be useful in certain situations, but honestly, how difficult is it to heat up the contents of any typical can?

What does the technology cost, compared to a standard can?

Typically a Hotcan meal will cost £3.99

http://evaq8.co.uk/Hotcan.html

Individual supermarket meal cans will range from around £0.50 to £1.50 depending on the meal so these are a very very expensive to heat a tin of food when compred to using something like gelled alcohol fuel such as Sterno.

A more cost effective solution would be to put the wet contents of a normal food can into a Mylar resealable bag and use a standard Chemical heater such as the Trekmates Flameless Cook Super Power Refill Pack, which I find will heat the contents of two wet food tins (400gm) at the same time if placed in a larger mylar bag placed in a neoprene bag i.e. a small notebook PC cover for insulation. This would also reduce bulk and weight compared to the Hotcan especially if you were needing to carry multiple meals.

http://www.amazon.com/Mylar-Ziplock-Food-Storage-Bags/dp/B004WYTCEA

or use a standard Flameless Ration heater bag for a single 400 gm tin.

http://evaq8.co.uk/FLAMELESS-RATION-HEATER-Turns-A-Wet-Meal-Into-A-Self-Heating-Meal.html

That's too expensive to be practical, IMO. Then there's the weight and volume to be considered as well, for backpacking.

Even more cost effective would be just to use a simple Trangia alcohol stove or butane/propane gas stove and a cook pot to heat up a can of supermarket food. Hotcans might have their place somewhere such as in a winter vehicle survival kit but they are too expensive for me to be practicable.

Winter Vehicle Survival Rations would be a good use for this product.

Looks like what I fed the dogs tonight.

Alpo Dog Food did come to my mind also when I saw it.