Hey everyone,

I had the topic of MRE and survival food come into my head a while ago and though of making a forum for the favorities of all the wogs here. I shall start off first by giving a couple informative links and tiny bit of info.

For those who dont know MRE/IMP are military field rations.
MRE=Meal Ready to Eat
IMP= Individual  Meal Package

I also have a kick ass website I found a while ago:

http://www.mreinfo.com/

I would like to also include reviews on rations and the all so famous but hard to find "Brick of Ration" I have not been able to find for a while but is apprently a 3 day supply of food in a small brick form sold at camping stores as well as the "Nutrition Gels" that seem to be popular as of late.

To start off though I have used the IMP in field condition and I absolutley love them and wish I could buy them more regularly though "Commerical Sale is Unlawful" being printed on the packages makes it hard to obtain these inside of the commerical area unless you know someone who is still in the Military and can grab some more you. I give the IMP a for sure thumbs up but have not used it in a while so will not do a review until used in more recent times.

The Menu C - MRE http://www.mreinfo.com/civilian/mre/menu-c-mres.html

This seems like the most solid civilian MRE to date due to it being made by the same complant as the actual American MREs and being almost exactly the same. I am currently trying to get these to test them though the heaters(which are awesome) make them hard to bring across the Canada/US border and I am not willing to lose a case to customs.

Till I have more time to write.

That is pretty cool, I read the history of the "Menu C" and makes perfect sense.  I call dips on #5, I know it's meatloaf, but it comes with bacon cheese spread.  I mean come on, bacon makes everything taste better.  I don't know about the prices, $80 + shipping.  I guess it might be worth it since you know the pack date on the MREs, and being the newest pack date is better, it gives you longer store life.  Also, the fact that the case C have a higher calorie count might make them worth it too.

At the same time, you can still easily find cases of MREs for sale on eBay for a better price, even with shipping.  While the meals themselves are a little older, they should still be good.  Most sellers will post the inspect date on the auction.  Of course the length of time they are good for will relate directly to the temperature they are stored in.

Ahhh, I see.  Well of course go with whatever is cheapest best for you.  What about on ebay.ca?  I mean there has to be Canadian soldiers who grab a couple of cases and throw them on ebay, just like here in the states.  At least that's what Im guessing.

What would be cool is try to figure out how to make your own meals that will last like MREs.  While I know methods like canning, freeze drying, etc are basic ways to preserve food at home, but what methods do the manufactures of MREs use?  What's their secret?  If it can be produced, it can be reproduced, so how do we as wogs reproduce it ourselves?  Or (sanity check) is it easier / cheaper to just buy rations from the manufactures?

Why not pull out our old friend, the meta-search engine of your choice and find out how the military food manufacturers are actually creating them?  Or is that a national secret..

The secret is the retort pouch.

I remember reading about (and being a tester for) certain MRE components back in the early 1980's.

They've come a long way since then.  In comparison, the early MRE's were awful.  But they were better than C-Rats most of the time.

The Datrex bars are everything as advertised, except that trying to live off them, you get palate boredom in about 2 days, tops.

At least, I did.

Carry a bottle of hot sauce.  It'll make you thirsty, but after while Datrex and most of the other survival cookie bars start tasting like coconut flavored sawdust.  Not that that's bad, mind you...at least it's mildly coconut flavored...it's just BORING.

And in my opinion, everything goes better with hot sauce.  I love the fact that the MRE accessory pouches have the mini-bottle of Tabasco in them.  Mmmm...

And yes, I have several cases in my survival supplies.  I love 'em.  You can buy the components separately, too.

Also, if you're interested, there are websites that have the T-Rats (Tray Rations) for Squad-Sized feeding.  Good stuff, too.

And MRE's aren't the only game in town anymore.  Check out "Heater Meals."

They have PANCAKES!!!

MMMMMM...

Okay, now I'm drooling.  I gotta go eat something.

S

Allow me to share some insight on the british ration packs.

These kick ass, simply put.


There are a variety of menus, mostly tasty, and a few even take in consideration religiiuos/lifestyle choixes (kosher, halal, vegetarian)

For breakfast, you get beans and sausages, and there is a main meal consisting of a soup, a meal, a dessert (last time, i had oxtail soup, salisbury steak with vegetables, and fruit pudding and custard - all tasty).

For snacking on the go, you get a portion of plain biscuits (Cookies in US-ese), a portion of oatmeal biscuits (tasty, i'm told, if mixed with a small quantity of warm water - makes great oatmeal if you want a 2nd hot breakfast).
#You also get a portion of boiled sweets, and enough tea and coffee to sink a ship. when done with your meals, you use the water you boiled the bag in and it makes a perfect quantity of hot chocolate. Very tasty, add sugar (provided) to taste.
Lastly, you get chocolate and gum to keep you going.#

I'm told by my dad (ex-TA) who once swapped for an american MRE while on an excercise with some spec-ops reserves that it was the last time he ever would do so, and every american on the camp tried to take a few of ours back. The ones they left for us ended up in the bin because no-one would eat them.
So yeah- they're good.

I will say i'm still mortified that they killed the original #4 omelette with ham while i was in.

I was assigned to range control, which meant odd hours, and seperate rations since i couldnt be there for the mess hall hours.  A single soldier's wet dream, 220 bucks extra a month in the pocket to eat on my own.  Down side is, they immediately pulled my meal card, and it was the 5th of the month.  I had paid my bills, bought some toys and was now broke and hungry.  Luckily my supply NCO was cool and happened to have 50-100 extra cases of MRE's squirreled away for situationals.  I think my weight gain started with living for a month in non combat situations solely on MRE's.  Sit in a tower all day on pain medications (post tank accident and nerve damage) that dont benefit your metabolism or activity level, not much to do but eat and read.

That year, some guys got some faked paperwork, had pulled up to a depot with a 5 ton and were in uniform at the time, and were able to get the entire 5 ton full of MRE's which were never to be seen again.  There's balls.

Personally, love em or hate em, MRE's work.  Depressed that i hadnt seen this thread earlier.  Thanks all for the info on good sources.

Only thing i hated, some MRE meals really didnt digest right for me, nothing like getting all bound up when the SHTF (literally? lol) 

Tabasco sauce makes all things good.  Hate grandma's fruitcake?  tabasco.   spicy fixes everything, and gets you moving.

So many trees so little time.  And i like to enjoy each tree too much lol