MRE meals. any good??

Justin_NSA · Feb 5, 2018

A LtCol pilot friend of mine eats them on his boat. They must be tolerable. We only ate C rations in my day.

Brian D · Feb 5, 2018

Prepare to be congested in the bowels. Very high in calories. Eating an entire meal might not be good since being on a boat one does not get any exercise. Now, with that in mind, some MREs are not too bad. You actually might enjoy them. But... hope you have lots of trash bags because they will produce lots of trash.

Never open Lima Beans when in an Amtrack. Bad juju!

BigEasy · Feb 5, 2018

Ate lots of them for a few weeks after hurricane Katrina when all the food stores were closed. Not bad; one tends to develop preference for specific meals. Quite a process, at least initially, learning how to activate the heating source & warming the meals. As Brian mentioned; lots of calories & generates lots of refuse. We were very appreciative that the Army National Guard made them available.

capta · Feb 5, 2018

Sounds like they would be good life raft rations, but why in the world would you want to eat those when you can go to a market and buy healthy food you know you'll like?

JamesG161 · Feb 5, 2018

As @BigEasy said, Katrina introduced MRE's to most of us.
They are HIGH calorie and a lot of Sugar.
My biggest disappointment was the "Barbecued Chicken" meal for Six people. We had been without a GOOD "sinful pleasure" food for a week. Sounded soooo great. Pure Sugar Sauce!
They are fine, tasted good, but only for perhaps Gilliagan Island crew needs.
Jim...

PS: We had not had a real Hamburger in 2 weeks after Katrina. Sonic finally opened up, the line was 1 hour long, But damn that was best hamburger and tater tots in our lives.

topcat0399 · Feb 5, 2018

One of my favorite pre-movement orders to receive was to the "draw MREs for X days" order, and then go and find that nearly every case of them was from the same lot...

ObliquePlanet · Feb 5, 2018

Real MREs are pretty good in general. Consider that military personnel on deployment to remote areas eat them for 3 months straight or longer. I haven't had consumer-grade, but if I did, I'd prefer to by from the company that supplies them to the DOD unless they have a proven track record. With consumer-grade, I'd recommend you try them before you buy a stockpile. In a dire situation, sure, those nutrition bars are better than nothing, but a MRE can improve morale. You've got spare TP, matches, hot sauce, instant coffee, cardboard you can burn, and most of all...variety. I like to keep MREs for disaster preparedness. To keep them fresh, I'll occasionally buy a new case and eat my old stock. Temperature is the biggest concern. Cold/cool = long shelf life, heat = short shelf life.

Rick Webb · Feb 5, 2018

Not the best solution. Each meal contains 1200 calories. The last one I ate 8 or 9 years ago were much better than the first ones in the early 80s. A good thing to have around for an emergency but after three days of living on them you are ready to do some pillaging for real food. They are also expensive to purchase.

I was in the Guard while in college and would come home from a drill weekend with at least four (sometimes more if others did not want them) meals. There was an "Army / Navy" store near campus and I could get enough for my MREs to buy groceries and beer for at least a week.

capta · Feb 5, 2018

ObliquePlanet said:
Real MREs are pretty good in general. Consider that military personnel on deployment to remote areas eat them for 3 months straight or longer. I haven't had consumer-grade, but if I did, I'd prefer to by from the company that supplies them to the DOD unless they have a proven track record. With consumer-grade, I'd recommend you try them before you buy a stockpile. In a dire situation, sure, those nutrition bars are better than nothing, but a MRE can improve morale. You've got spare TP, matches, hot sauce, instant coffee, cardboard you can burn, and most of all...variety. I like to keep MREs for disaster preparedness. To keep them fresh, I'll occasionally buy a new case and eat my old stock. Temperature is the biggest concern. Cold/cool = long shelf life, heat = short shelf life.

I wonder how much odor wafts out of one (or a squad's) of those and if the enemy could smell them cooking, in some place like a jungle, where visibility isn't good, but odors travel well.

topcat0399 · Feb 5, 2018

capta said:
I wonder how much odor wafts out of one (or a squad's) of those and if the enemy could smell them cooking, in some place like a jungle, where visibility isn't good, but odors travel well.

when the enema is near you eat 'em cold and perhaps dry...

Brian D · Feb 5, 2018

topcat0399 said:
when the enema is near you eat 'em cold and perhaps dry...

He said enema. LOL. Yeah, after a few of these you may need that enema. LOL

Ron20324 · Feb 5, 2018

Brian D said:
..., after a few of these you may need that enema.

IIRC, no, you wouldn't need one.

Rick Webb · Feb 5, 2018

A can of Beanee Weenees or SpaghettiOs might be a better choice than an MRE

vetch · Feb 5, 2018

I've eaten hundreds over the years. We used to have fun names for them like 4 fingers of death and beef spew. Loaded with salt, sugar and calories. I'll 2nd (or is it 3rd) the amount of trash they generate. A tip for that is to strip them before packing. Get rid of the outer bag and all of the cardboard and if there is anything you know you won't eat trash it.

The other thing is find fun combos. Some guys would take the peaches, add the crackers (crushed) the sugar packet and the creamer packet. We called it "peach cobbler".

The cheese is the big thing that will plug you up. In the field most guys averaged one movement a week. Not that you save anything. It's a weeks worth.

Then there are the fun things you can do with them. Put the grey powder from the heater and some water in a plastic water bottle cap it throw it and BOOM. But then you can also put the Tabasco and a little water in the heater and slip it under someones door. Roll up the excess heater packet and when it expands it seals under the door jam and pops inside their room which will aerosollize the pepper sauce in their room. Combine that with a penny stuck in the door jam and it's lots of fun.

Or if your not a total jerk try the 2 minute challenge. Bet someone they can't eat both crackers in 2 minutes. Bet as much as it takes to get them to try. I've seen dozens of Privates attempt it and no one ever even got close, but it's always entertaining.

For me if I found some cheap I would keep them as emergency rations or life boat fare. I wouldn't want to eat them for normal food. But then I've eaten hundreds of them over the years.

justsomeguy · Feb 5, 2018

vetch said:
Combine that with a penny stuck in the door jam and it's lots of fun.

That was YOU?

Crazy Dave Condon · Feb 6, 2018

Ron C, Russ and Vetch.
Got a good laugh this morning. Yes I ate MRE’s which some reminded me of a tur_ in a punch bowl. (Add D)

capta · Feb 6, 2018

RussC said:
It's a fair question. When we're on the M25 for several days at a time we have the full galley and fridge etc and eat very well indeed. but when we go out for a day on our little V17 it can really be a hassle taking along cooking equipment, dishes, utensils, etc, etc, etc. and we like to have a half decent meal on board. I have a compact single burner stove to heat with, but minimal additional gear would be a big plus.

Even us big boats prepare food before a voyage,store in the freezer and use when conditions make cooking difficult. No way I'd do MRE's rather than a nice picnic lunch on a day sail. But to each his/her own, so enjoy.