Who has eaten the oldest MRE (or MCI !)

gf3006 · Post by **gf3006** » Wed May 10, 2006 2:29 pm

Hallo, in 1981 as 2°LT of the Italian Army Engineers (well, sound bad but not all in the world are SF and in my country in this time there is compulsory conscription) my platoon is "lost" for some time from the normal supply line and for some days we eat canned beef ,not bully beef but a differen type in cans of half kg. canned in 1959 (my birth year),hardtack, bitter chocolate and small bottles of grappa,tipical strong liqueur of Italian farmland.little problems when read the production date but taste good,very good if starving.greetings Gianfranco

Richard w. · Post by **Richard w.** » Thu May 11, 2006 6:33 am

Hi Gianfranco-

I'm a big fan of grappa (Italian White Lightning!)

Is it common to have liquor (or wine?) included in your field rations?

gf3006 · Post by **gf3006** » Thu May 11, 2006 1:24 pm

hallo,in the combat ration old type (only one menu rarely seen in the field) from early 70 to early 90 you can find a small plastic bottle of grappa or a plastic bottle o small plastic bag of "cordiale" a liqueur produced by the Farmaceutical Department of the Army.this is of great help in cold and mixed with the sweet & boiling service coffee can help the homesick national serviceman during the hard task of the digestion of titbits as:meatballes antipersonal extended range or canned meat,sliced,fried and killed just before eating tipicals of the old army meals.greetings Gianfranco

Zizka · Post by **Zizka** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:07 am

Just eaten a 20 year old Swedish army freeze dried tomato-chicken dish and no explosion from the exhaustpipe yet...

Have a pleasant week//
Zizka

rational · Post by **rational** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:42 pm

Brave Zizka, a 20-year old entree, that petty good! Freeze-drying must be pretty safe. In a 2000 Australian ratpack was included a BIG tube of condensed milk, which I didn't want to waste, but was a little leery of...so I mixed it up with a can of pumpkin and baked it for safety, instead of using the traditional canned milk....it was REALLY good pumpkin pie!
Better than the tube of Australian VEGIMITE GAG!
I think you HAVE to have grown up with that stuff to be able to stand it.

Zizka · Post by **Zizka** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:53 am

rational wrote:Brave Zizka, a 20-year old entree, that petty good! Freeze-drying must be pretty safe. In a 2000 Australian ratpack was included a BIG tube of condensed milk, which I didn't want to waste, but was a little leery of...so I mixed it up with a can of pumpkin and baked it for safety, instead of using the traditional canned milk....it was REALLY good pumpkin pie!
Better than the tube of Australian VEGIMITE GAG!
I think you HAVE to have grown up with that stuff to be able to stand it.

You dont have to be brave if you know the history behind what you are eating.

I have always stored my armyfood in dark, cool and dry places and when I opened the outer plastic bag it was still airtight and no holes in the 2 food bags inside. This was the old freeze dried version when you have to cook the meat and vegetables for 5 minutes and after that you pour in the gravypowder and its ready to eat. Today its the water-in-bag system in the army.
Next up is a can of "Dead-mans-fingers" with an age of 27 years....

dirtbag · Post by **dirtbag** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:04 am

Brave Lad

We'll miss him

knighthawks97 · Post by **knighthawks97** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:18 pm

I just ate the corned beef hash and BBQ pork w/ rice meals from 1991 (1994 insp). They were pretty good. You could tell they were dated, but maybe it was just in my mind. It seems like the items that are in the MRE-type wrapper were good to go. The Reece's Pieces and Charms (not in the MRE-type wrapper, just their standard commercial wrapper) were horrible and were thrown away immediately. The crackers and jelly were good as well. I think as long as the crackers have that signature "air" sound from the vacuum seal when you open them up, they are fine.

Richard w. · Post by **Richard w.** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:56 am

Those damned "Charms" are never right even when the meals are fresh.

They must glue the cellophane wrappers onto them at the factory. Sticky mess gets all over everything-

Much more trouble than they're worth.

knighthawks97 · Post by **knighthawks97** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:46 am

I take that back about all the stuff in the special MRE wrapper being OK. The cheese spread was green and very STRONG smelling