This consisted of:
- 1 chocolate mint cookie
- 2 packets MRE "bread" (actually a sort of soft wheat cookie)
- 1 packet clam chowder
- 1 packet pork loaf
- 1 packet MRE cheese
I took out a plate and a small bowl, and put the MRE bread and small bowl on the plate. Then when the chowder and pork loaf were warm, I opened the chowder packet and put the chowder in the bowl, and opened the pork loaf packet and extracted the pork loaf and put it on the bread. Then I topped the pork loaf with the MRE cheese, slapped the other slice of "bread" on top, and there we are. Do *NOT* just turn the pork loaf packet upside down and dump out the pork loaf, there's a lot of grease in there that'll turn your bread into a soggy mess if you do. Carefully tear / cut the packet and extract just the pork loaf, not the grease. Optionally, dump some of the grease into the clam chowder for some more flavor.
Verdict:
Clam chowder: Kind of bland, but then, most clam chowder is. A little of the pork loaf grease and a little black pepper gets it perked right up and it tastes like, well, clam chowder. Nice.
Pork loaf sandwich: This sandwich was *good*. The pork loaf had a nicely smoked and meaty flavor that was well accented by the taste of the cheese and the flatbread taste of the "bread" (soft wheat crackers).
Cookie: That was good too.
So give this one a four-stars (out of four) rating -- definitely a keeper if this one gets issued to you as disaster rations. Just remember, the clam chowder gets the heater pouch, otherwise it's like eating chalk!
-- Badtux the Culinary Penguin
The frozen pizza reviews were more relevant to most peoples' lives...
ReplyDeleteThank You for your
ReplyDelete" taste test " . Although I am famillar with a few of the commercial products and the required " techniques " to make them palatable , I have never had the ' pleasure ' of their military counterparts . Actually with a little forethought and enough stove to cook pasta or instant rice there are many posibilities at your local market without resorting to packets of half chemicals or half grease . Still, availability is the issue .
an outdoor oriented w3ski
MRE's have a life span of 3+ years and are typically given out in the aftermath of a disaster to keep folks from starving to death. So from a disaster planning point of view, knowing which MRE's to eat and which to trade with your next door neighbor might be an important skill in the aftermath of a disaster :-).
ReplyDeleteI do agree that as a camping food, they're not particularly good. They're too heavy and there's too much else in your grocery store that's better tasting (though not by much -- the best MRE's taste *good*, the wizards at Natick have somehow managed to make good-tasting food that lasts for years). They're useful for car camping only. But they do taste better than freeze-dried food. Of course, my dirty socks taste better than freeze-dried food :-).
- Badtux the Foodie Penguin
Bukko, there's a lot of people in my town who have to eat those things...they call them Meals Rejected By Ethiopians, but since when do military personnel NOT bitch? :)
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, I got hungry reading it. I had a simple salad with ranch and Tapatio and for desert, an orange. Later I'll attack this thing my mother sent me, she said my first word was "EAT"...
...later nothing, I just wiped out two of the chocolate covered strawberries. I've never had one of those before today, they're good. Thanks for making me hungry Badtux, I got to try something I've never had before :)
Most of the MRE's are good. Here is the down and dirty. Cheese Tortellini (vegetarian) MRE. Get it. It has reeces pieces and a HOOAH bar. Chicken pesto, and the tuna one are good too. DO NOT get vege omelet... UNLESS you are eating MRE's for all three meals. In that case, get it for your breakfast meal. Toss the omelet, eat the poptart and hashbrowns it comes with, and save the redhots for later.
ReplyDeleteThe cheese tortellini is indeed good. The omelet... agreed. Inedible. Utterly inedible. Nastiest thing I ever attempted to eat. One bite and spit it out. Blech! Even my cats turn their noses up at it.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Food Penguin