MRE tasting

Posted on by

The breaded chicken with pasta shells in tomato sauce is Pretty Damn Good. Im going to have to order a case of those entrees separately.

Showed the girlfriend (hence the Showing The Girlfriend icon) what a dissected MRE looks like. Explained how the heater works, the accessory pack, alternate heat sources, how to open the entree pouches lengthwise instead of crosswise for easier access, etc, etc. Hopefully our lesson in using the MRE heater took because I really dont want to have to crack open another one for a refresher course. Fortunately, the instructions are supposedly ‘soldierproof’ and are stamped clearly on the heater packaging.

The MRE’s arent the end-all for food storage. i certainly wouldnt want to live on them…what they are for is situations where you have to grab something and go, go , go…throw a couple cases in the truck and run like hell…that sort of thing. Or if youre going to be afield for a couple days. They most certainly are not for staying-at-home-during-a-blackout use. Thats what the regular food and freeze-drieds are for.

I still have some cases of MRE’s that are over ten years old…and you really can see the evolution of the MRE in there. If you havent been there http://www.mreinfo.com probably has the most detailed and illustrated guide to MRE’s out there. Menu plans, shelf life, experiments conducted on MRE’s, MRE’s from around the workd, etc, etc. Definitely worth looking at.

So I’ve got enough cases of MRE’s now to give me a fairly secure feeling. In fact, I’ve enough to split my supply in half and keep half at a secondary location, which is always a good idea.

13 thoughts on “MRE tasting”

  2. I still have a bunch of over 20 year old MRE entrees that are good. Of course most (but not all) of them have been in the freezer (or fridge) for years. Come to think of it, I’ve never had one go bad yet. Not to push my luck or anything 😉

  5. MREs are handy, but expensive. One alternative that I’ve discovered is something called Tasty Bites. There are a few other brands as well. Apparently, ready-to-eat food in retort pouches is becoming very popular among Indian consumers. They do Indian and Thai food, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other cuisines. The entrees are generally around $2, and I believe they’re a bit larger than the MRE entrees as they’re intended to serve two people. The ones with meat in them may be a bit more expensive. I’ve used them for Burning Man, which is a great preparedness exercise in addition to the fact that it includes drugs, dancing, naked hippies, and questionable art. One can simply rip open a package and eat them with a spoon, or if there’s a little time available, some rice can be made.

  6. One thing to remember is that the printed instructions on the heaters say you can put the box/heater/entree in your BDU leg cargo pocket while heating. (at least it used to be printed on it, they may hve taken it off now)

    If you do that, expect possible burns up to and including third degree in severity.

  7. You can even get single (or double, I’m not sure) serving retort pouches of rice. Which is based on what I think was one lying next to the JunkTruck 😉

    Where do you find the Tasty Bites?

  9. Tasty Bites can be ordered off the Internet relatively cheaply directly from the importer, here. They have discounts and coupons, so a deal can be had. Around here they can sometimes be found at Trader Joe’s, but I’ve found the best deal at New India Bazaar on El Camino in Santa Clara. Ordered direct, they’re $1.99, they’re $2.29 at TJ’s, and they were $1.79 or so at NIB the last time I was there. NIB also has a variety of other brands. Apparently, there’s 6 or 7 major manufacturers of the Indian retort pouch foods. Tasty Bites is the only one that I know of that also does Thai.

  10. I recently opened some 20-year-old MREs. Some were still edible and even indistinguishable from more recent MREs. Some, however, were absolutely, positively, disgustingly non-edible and quite possibly toxic. The condiments, especially, did not stand the test of time. Most of the cheese spreads, for example, were gray and smelled foul. In other words, MREs can go bad…they can go very bad. Unlike yours, however, these had not been kept in a freezer or refrigerator.

  11. Mine are entrees only. I never get the whole meal, as I can make up that stuff on my own a lot cheaper. Except for the brownies, which I crave and can’t buy because I can’t keep my grubby hands off them 😉

  12. Unfortunately, I can’t eat most MREs because of the large amounts of modified food starch in them. I can, however, eat MRE pound cakes, which, if you haven’t tried them, are fabulous. (Yes, when civilization collapses, I will be forced to live on junk food.)

Comments are closed.