Beef Taco #6

[Woodland]

Many MRE menus make little sense. I have always thought that when NATICK sets the meal contents they look only at the calorie count and pay no attention whatever to what people would choose to eat as a meal. Sausage and gravy with crackers? (Menu 20) C'mon.

Exactly.Military rations should be nutritious and not perfect meals If you are hungry you eat what you get.
Not being a soldier in the field I have the luxury of choice.I got into the habit of field stripping my MREs because there are items I like more and also because of some odd combinations in the original menus.
I have a list of every food items I have and I make entree,spread,bread item,dessert/fruit combos.I try to make balanced meals.Some MREs are too one sided,like the Spicy Penne from 2014,which is full of dessert items (toaster pastry,pudding,chocolate PNB).I put the leftovers into old MRE bags sorted like "hot drinks and shakes" etc. My version of the Pork Rib menu is: pork rib,santa fe style rice,cheese spread,bread (twin pack) and wet pack fruit.With fudge brownie or pound cake instead of the santa fe rice it's a breakfast menu (sandwich and dessert).Cocolate peanut butter in tortillas makes an excellent dessert or jam/jelly spread on pound cake

[SugarLord]

Well, I had the Beef Tacos. It was scrummy, but the tortillas were a bit stuck together in the packet, meaning I couldn't get a bit large enough to wrap around the ground beef Taco mix which was a shame. I should have added crackers to it!

Could have done with some cheese and lettuce on top and I used a bit of Tabasco sauce that we had on the shelf.

Pretty good entree all in all.

That's two recent MRE's down and one to go for me. (Where did I put it?)

[tgd31968]

This must be ongoing. I have just opened up a Beef Taco MRE (Menu 6) to find:

Beef Taco Filling
Plain Tortillas
Cheese filled pepperoni cracker (i.e. Cheeze-its)
Zapplesauce
Fruit punch Electrolytic drink
Apple Jelly
Peanut Butter
Flameless Heater
Cardboard sleeve
Sundries packet (Matches, Gum, Tissue, Coffee sachet, Non-dairy creamer sachet, Sugar sachet, Salt sachet and moist towelette)
Long handled spoon
Hot Beverage bag
Saltless seasoning sachet.

So, like you, I have nothing to eat with my Peanut Butter and Apple jelly. I'll just have to suck em from the tube!

It is funny, I just opened this same menu. I bought it very recently at a store in Toledo. I
I had exactly the same reaction as the OP. It seemed like the person or equipment that fills the packages screwed up, but apparently they actually did it on purpose.

Not only did I wonder about having PB and J with no crackers, I also could have filled 4 tortillas with the amount of filling they had. Not sure how I would have gotten my mouth around it if I had put 1/2 the filling in each tortilla. Either way, the taco meat was meh.

Tonight I opened a Southwest beans and beef of a similar vintage, date code 4112. Big disappointment, and perhaps even more bizarre. The entrée was not great, basically like a lower grade canned beef stew. 2 tortillas again, Cheese spread, no crackers and turkey nuggets!!? I ended up using some store bought crackers for the cheese but I have not yet opened the turkey. Maybe I'll wait a couple weeks and have it for Thanksgiving. The cheese spread and the chocolate toaster pastry were the best part of the meal.

For me, newer MRE's are just a big disappointment anyway. I know they are trying to use commercial components to save money, and I also know they are not making these for my enjoyment, but as far as me buying them, I might as well go to the store and buy a package of combos, a box of toaster pastries, a can of beef stew and some tortillas. The old ones with components you could not get anywhere else were so much more interesting. My favorite was meatballs and BBQ sauce with rice, followed by ham slice and omelet with ham. I also loved the maple nut cake and the oatmeal block.
Now I keep a few around for emergencies, but I think I am done buying US MREs for occasional consumption.

TD

[RockyRaab]

We need to keep one thing in perspective: the way we eat MREs and the way soldiers eat them are entirely different. We treat each one as an isolated meal. They sometimes have to live on the things and get two or three of them every day. For soldiers, there's a LOT of overlap. They can save an item from this meal and have it later with another meal. Last night's leftover PB&J goes well with the cracker pack from this morning's sausage and gravy. Yesterday's strawberry shake makes icing for today's muffin top. And so on.

Look at your leftovers box (we all have one) and you'll realize how well you could pick out some previous item to "go with" the meal in front of you now. That's very possibly how NATICK looks at it. Get the total calorie/carb/protein mix balanced and it all works out eventually.

[FREMONT]

I recall having a 2012 menu 23 chicken pesto pasta when I was camping during the summer that didn't even have a FRH. Cold chicken does not make an enjoyable dinner, God forbid a soldier was issued this MRE during the winter.

[tgd31968]

I recall having a 2012 menu 23 chicken pesto pasta when I was camping during the summer that didn't even have a FRH. Cold chicken does not make an enjoyable dinner, God forbid a soldier was issued this MRE during the winter.

Frankly I have eaten several generations of MRE's since a buddy brought one home from his ROTC exercise and let me try it in 1985/86 (Turkey and ham loaf as I recall).
Since that time I have found that for me most of the entrées taste better at room temperature than they do hot. Many of them develop a mushy or slimy texture I don't like when they are warm.
I just wish I could once again have my all time favorite, meatballs with rice in tomato sauce with a maple nut cake chaser. Yum.

[sourwes]

I personally agree with RockyRaab view in this. We were never issued single meals when deployed with no mess hall access. We were always issued cases and you put your meals together as you chose. Breakfast was usually dispensed from mermite(sp?) cans and you would fend for yourself the rest of the day. Yes, everyone who,s ever eaten more than a cpl MREs has a leftovers box and it's more satisfying to be able to mix and match your own items together. Everyone has different tastes. My favorite combo might be your worst meal ever. Happy ration hunting!

[rationtin440]

What RockyRaab posted about how some MREs not making any sense made me think of how some MREs lack a dessert item, including the one being discussed. Does anyone have any theories on this?