Refrigeration to prolong shelf life

[Bypah]

Norton , nice review.
I see you got a nice Swedish Triangia set up.
I have one too.

[noderaser]

I doubt artificial refrigeration would be worth the cost, just keep them in a relatively cool place in the house or basement. Mine are in a closet in the center of the house (no exterior walls) so there are no extreme temperature swings. I have thought about getting a big Rubbermaid and putting them down in the crawl-space, along with some desiccant since it does get pretty damp down there. While there's most certainly a point at which you don't want to consume an MRE, the different components handle adverse conditions and age differently. Most of the wet-pack things such as entrees & sides seem to hold up very well, while some of the accessories (especially powdered things) and candy go much sooner.

[rationtin440]

I'm not sure that this had anything to do with refrigeration, more probably age, but I recall the orange nut cake from the MCIs always having kind of a bitter, nasty taste from the nuts----never made me sick, but it was my least favorite dessert besides the fruitcake. Always seemed to leave a bad taste in the mouth even after a small bite.

[rationtin440]

I just realized I made an error, I meant the orange nut roll from the MCI menu 6 beef and taters in sauce----however the orange nut cake from the brown pouch MREs was no better eventhough it was much newer, it too seemed to take on a bitter taste. I had always assumed it was from the nuts but now I'm wondering if it may have been from the orange. Either way, I'm sure that no amount of refrigeration would have made any difference for either item. The toffee disks and poundcake held up just fine every time we got MCIs with either item in them----not sure I'd be brave enough to try either one now though.

[Norton]

I'm not sure that this had anything to do with refrigeration, more probably age, but I recall the orange nut cake from the MCIs always having kind of a bitter, nasty taste from the nuts----never made me sick, but it was my least favorite dessert besides the fruitcake. Always seemed to leave a bad taste in the mouth even after a small bite.

I remember the Orange Nut cake in the MCI, not that bad when it was fresh. It seemed they were always packed in South Carolina
Am I right? Mullins Corp or something to that effect


As for nuts I tried the nut and raisin mix in the 2006 freezer stored pouch we opened
We both thought they tasted stale as in normal grocery store stale
What I mean is the nuts had a more bitter taste than normal and the raisins were bland

[rationtin440]

Yes Norton, I recall the can being stenciled with Mullins Corp. Actually there were other companies as well, if I recall correctly there was a McCallister that was on the crackers and candy, but I may be recalling in error since I have not eaten an MCI for over 30 years.

[rationtin440]

Wow, I think I need to go to bed, or else my alzheimers is arriving ahead of schedule, it has not been over 30 years since I ate an MCI, actually it was late 1987-early 1988, sorry about that! Not sure I'd eat anything from an MCI now though.

[housil]

Nut´s can spoil in two different ways.
If the oil inside spoils, they get rancid and have that awefull, "rancid" yucky smell and taste.
They also can get a mold fungus from the "moist" environment like e.g. inside a cake or together with the raisins.

So if they taste bitter, don´t eat them anymore!

[rationtin440]

You're right about nuts housil, I have had my share of bad luck and can certainly attest to that and not just with MCI orange nut rolls or MRE orange nut cakes! I'm still wondering about the orange part itself though----do you know if orange in anything can give it a bitter taste if it has been sitting sealed too long? Considering my unit was eating these MCIs 8-9 years after they were produced, I'm not sure if they were intended to have the same shelf-life as MREs. (although rumor had it that the lead paint on the cans was to shield their contents from radioactive fallout ).

[Ws60]

You're right about nuts housil, I have had my share of bad luck and can certainly attest to that and not just with MCI orange nut rolls or MRE orange nut cakes! I'm still wondering about the orange part itself though----do you know if orange in anything can give it a bitter taste if it has been sitting sealed too long? Considering my unit was eating these MCIs 8-9 years after they were produced, I'm not sure if they were intended to have the same shelf-life as MREs. (although rumor had it that the lead paint on the cans was to shield their contents from radioactive fallout ).

I can see how that rumor would have started, but thankfully dead cells doesn't care two beans about most levels of radiation. If nothing else a little gamma radiation from fallout particulate would have actually extended shelf life by partially sterilizing it of any bacteria that had survived the canning process..