Meal, Ready-to-eat, individual

[mickeyd]

I acquired a MRE that I'm sending to one of my nephews (age 8) but need to get one more for the other nephew or I be "playing favorites." I'll try next week to scarf up another one.

The one that I have is Menu 17, Sloppy Joe. As the link shows, there are 24 different menus available in the 2010 edition. Just another "benefit" of being involved with the US military. Some are actually pretty tasty.


MREInfo.com - Menus XXX (2010)

 

[martyb]

lol....I wouldn't go as far as to describle MRE's as "tasty", but they are definitely better than they used to be. Now that I don't have to eat them anymore (yes, even Air Force troops get MRE's now & then), for some reason I'm thinking about picking up a few to have in the house for emergencies. Just what kind of emergency might require dining on MRE's I don't know, but I'm sure there must be one. Anyhow, we shop at the commissary on an Air Force base weekly, & they sell individual MRE's for around $7.50 each, I think. I'm gonna pick up maybe 1/2 dozen soon. It hasn't been too long that I had a whole case of them, and was so sure I'd NEVER eat them again, I gave them to my son-in-law so he'd have some tasty snacks for the deer stand. I can't believe I'm actually going to fork over real money for them! I must be getting senile!!

 

[brewer12345]

We keep them around for emergencies. If you poke aroun online you can find all kinds of weird variants, like Hallal and vegetarian MREs. Since one of my daughters is veggie and DW and I do not eat all meats, I ended up buying a case of the vegetarian.

 

[mortal]

Mres are a must have for any sort of regional disaster (hurricanes for us). I find that spegetti is best, mixed with the included cheese sause and hot sauce. If you find yourself without power for weeks on end, any hot meal will hit the spot. I was glad to have them.

 

[ls99]

Don't know about MREs.
My fond memories are of C rations with cigarettes and chocolate covered coconut cookies. Tinned peanut butter! Next were LRRPs. Just add hot water Yummm.

One day I'll sample the MREs.

 

[JakeBrake]

Don't know about MREs.
My fond memories are of C rations with cigarettes and chocolate covered coconut cookies. Tinned peanut butter! Next were LRRPs. Just add hot water Yummm.

One day I'll sample the MREs.

+1 I have never smoked, but those Camels, Lucky Strikes, and Pall Malls in the C Rations were great as trade items.

 

[Nords]

We keep them around for emergencies.

The submarine force does that too. But before the food situation got dire enough to break out the MREs, we'd send the Supply Officer and the lead cook out through one of the torpedo tubes...

 

[Rustic23]

Winter survival was my first taste of Pemmican. We did not get the rest of the c rations just the pemmican bars. As close as I can tell 50% fat 50% dried hamburger! Might be great for the Dukan diet, but it was the worst stuff I ever tasted! For me, MRE's are a huge improvement!!!!

 

[M Paquette]

The submarine force does that too. But before the food situation got dire enough to break out the MREs, we'd send the Supply Officer and the lead cook out through one of the torpedo tubes...

When the MREs closed in on the expiration date, they were served to the duty sections while in-port.

Naturally, that made the staff over at Nujo's Pizza very happy. "They're serving MREs on the boat, so I'd like 20 large pepperoni and sausage pies, and one pineapple and ham for the lootenant..."

 

[JakeBrake]

There we were on an MSTS troopship. (Military Sea Transport Service. This is a civilian ship with a civilian crew leased by the US Navy. The civilians made more money if they skimped on food.) This particular troopship had a cargo hold easily accessible from the troop quarters. We had loaded thousands of boxes of C Rations into in the cargo hold for use at our destination. The food on this ship was so bad that after a few days our CO (Commanding Officer) gave the order to break out the C Rations and that's what most of us ate for the rest of the voyage. We still had plenty for use at our destination.

 

[Nords]

When the MREs closed in on the expiration date, they were served to the duty sections while in-port.

I swear I never knew that MREs had expiration dates.

One day in 1985 aboard USS JAMES MONROE, during a freezer cleanout to fix a refrigerant leak, we found frozen beef with a 1952 date. To this day I'm still hoping it was a "let's play a joke on the officer" situation...

 

[Nodak]

I swear I never knew that MREs had expiration dates.

One day in 1985 aboard USS JAMES MONROE, during a freezer cleanout to fix a refrigerant leak, we found frozen beef with a 1952 date. To this day I'm still hoping it was a "let's play a joke on the officer" situation...

When I started working at Cavalier AFS in 1976 we had C rations for emergency food. I got stuck there in a 3 day blizzard and wound up eating scalloped potatoes and ham that had been packed in 1945. Nobody got sick from it but we spent quite awhile expecting to.

 

[pb4uski]

I went on a 10 day canoe trip with a group back a few years ago and we principally had MREs for dinners. Not too bad after you get used to them. I found it was much better to heat them in boiling water over the fire than with the chemical heaters that they come with.

When we got to a certain part of the trip we had a treat of boxed doctored macaroni and cheese - I never thought that macaroni and cheese could taste so good, but compared to the MREs it was heavenly.

 

[haha]

+1 I have never smoked, but those Camels, Lucky Strikes, and Pall Malls in the C Rations were great as trade items.

Cool! trade a Camel for some gonococci.

Ha

 

[Leonidas]

I'm sitting here laughing as I remember all the nicknames we had for the different meals and accessories in the C-rats. None of them can be published on a family friendly website.

 

[Gumby]

At Quantico, some Marines taught me how to burn little pieces of C-4 to heat up the cans. Works just like sterno.

 

[REWahoo]

At Quantico, some Marines taught me how to burn little pieces of C-4 to heat up the cans. Works just like sterno.

Hmmm... Using C-4 instead of sterno could give an entirely new meaning to the term 'chafing dish'...

 

[Midpack]

I'm crewing on a 3-4 day sailboat race in mid-July, and the six of us will be eating almost nothing but MRE's (one member of our crew is active military) for the whole trip. They're a great alternative for traveling light, easy prep, etc.

And as the son of a lifer (haven't heard/used that term in decades), I can attest to how much better MRE's have become. When I was a kid my Dad would give me one for fun for dinner (I loved it) once in a while, I think they were called C rations then. He had to take out the cigarettes (a little pack of 3-4 I think) - to show you how far back I go with MRE's. All I can remember was some big crackers in a tin, and a tin of something spam-like, and a P-38...

 

[braumeister]

MREs are fine gourmet dining compared to C-rations.
I lived on nothing but C-rats for nearly six weeks back in the day, and we were happy to have them. I was a smoker then, so even the cigarettes were welcome.

 

[Walt34]

But before the food situation got dire enough to break out the MREs, we'd send the Supply Officer and the lead cook out through one of the torpedo tubes...

Now that's an incentive to exceed expectations!

 

[Dawg52]

Almost tempted to buy a few. Haven't had a need in the last 5 years, but they would have come in handy during Katrina. Going to a restaurant or grocery store was a nightmare the week after the storm. Not to mention the power outage in my neighborhood.

 

[W2R]

Almost tempted to buy a few. Haven't had a need in the last 5 years, but they would have come in handy during Katrina. Going to a restaurant or grocery store was a nightmare the week after the storm. Not to mention the power outage in my neighborhood.

Food was very hard to find down here after Katrina too. However MREs and bottled water were freely distributed and there were plenty to be had. That was SO tempting since it took hours of waiting in line to get anything else at all, and then once you got to the front of the line there was little if any choice in what could be bought. At a restaurant after waiting hours everybody got the same thing - - a cold burger on a stale bun on a paper plate with nothing else but your choice of ketchup or mustard. At the few grocery stores that weren't full of rotting produce and closed, the shelves were 90% cleaned out and you had to take what you could get. Still, I didn't take any MREs.

Weight Watchers resumed down here on Oct 1, 2005 about a month after Katrina. Almost the very first thing my leader did after we all hugged one another and cried a little, was to caution us against eating MRE's.

MREs are designed for healthy, active 18 year old men engaging in strenuous activities/warfare every day, not for the average person. I don't recall the calories but if my memory is correct then one MRE meal had more calories than I should have consumed in a couple of days if I didn't want to gain. So, of course that had to be pretty yummy but you pay the price.

I'd prefer canned food to MREs should we have another disaster (knock on wood!).

 

[Nodak]

I keep 3 MREs in my winter survival kit for my car.

 

[mickeyd]

Does anyone else recall LRRP (long range recon patrol) rations? They were used in the 60's-70's and were probably considered the forerunner to MREs. Much lighter and "quieter" than Cs. They had a rice and beef meal that I still recall as sweet.

 

[martyb]

I'm crewing on a 3-4 day sailboat race in mid-July, and the six of us will be eating almost nothing but MRE's (one member of our crew is active military) for the whole trip. They're a great alternative for traveling light, easy prep, etc.

I recommend drinking lots of water...because MRE's can cause certain "diffculties" sometimes...if you know what I mean.