MRE & MCI Myths

[Ruleryak]

I've been trying to eat all natural for a while now so I eat that sort of peanut butter at home. I get the big jars and when I first open them there's about an inch of oil at the top and it takes a good 5 mins with a big wooden spoon to mix up the whole jar. I tell you one thing though, I'd never go back to emulsified peanut butter. Makes me want to try the older stuff even more now!

Oh and Raab - I'd definitely agree that doing a boil-in-bag with an entree shouldn't contaminate the water regardless of what ends up being true about the outer bag. There may be some dirt or something from the conveyors/rollers at the factory on the pouch but it's not gonna kill anyone.

[dirtbag]

We used to boil the C-rat/MCI cans, and use the water for the coffee.
The heat tabs were just enough for 1 heat cycle, not enough for two.
Actually, the heat tabs were dangerous enough, the fumes will kill you...
What was IN the cans wasn't all that good for you, either!

[rationtin440]

Wow dirtbag! You were lucky to have fuel bars that worked well, it seemed that ours would sputter and give off disgusting fumes and take longer than usual to heat the food with our MCI can-turned-stove. However, we medics were well treated by the rest of the unit so we would usually be supplied with more fuel bars than we could use in a whole weekend. Also luckily our crew-chief hated the fuel bars so we often had his portable stove to use.

[dirtbag]

Fuel bars?
Those Tri-Ox bars came out after my time.
I was refering to the three round tabs, wrapped in OD foil, that came in C's/MCI's (early days?)

I did buy some tri-ox a few years ago, purple, bar shaped.
Not impressed...
Messy...
Smelly...
burns too quick...
I have stoves!
Many stoves!
I collect single burner stoves!

[Ruleryak]

You crack me up sometimes dirtbag

[dirtbag]

You crack me up sometimes dirtbag

And yet, I never lack for hot grub...

And Coffee!
I loves me some hot Coffee!

[rationtin440]

Actually dirtbag, I only ate MCIs from 1978-1980 and I only recall them having the trioxane bars when we actually got them, but most times we got the bars seperately. But I am 49 so my memory sometimes fails on the details.

[dirtbag]

I was in the military from 1968-1978, I had MCI's when I was aboard my third ship, USS Douglas, PG-100 (Patrol Gunboat)
Also the occasional LURP .
Earlier, I had enjoyed ? some leftover C-Rats thanks to the Air Force base nearby.
I completely missed the early dehydrated/freeze dry MRE's. (from the things I heard, I didn't miss much)
I did have very early freeze dried muck, mid 60's, from Oregon Freeze Dry, now Mountain House.
Dried cardboard...
Then came the newer wet pack MRI's!

The latest are not bad at all!

[mreheater72]

...One thing I did notice though, rumor or not----every nutcake I ever ate from MCIs or MREs back in the day seemed to have a bitter aftertaste from what I can only assume was the nuts.

In my opinion the "MRE Nut Cakes" were the best dessert items ever in MREs. I ate really hundreds of them, fresh in the eighties, now out of the stocks I saved from "better times", but I never had one that tasted bitter . Those ones I ate the last two,three years were as fine as that ones I ate in the eighties .

Now the MRE myth I have read or heard about: If the MRE pouch has only a tiny hole, the single items inside will have a shorter shelf life! Is that really true ?

So long mreheater72

[Name_not_found]

[
Now the MRE myth I have read or heard about: If the MRE pouch has only a tiny hole, the single items inside will have a shorter shelf life! Is that really true ?

So long mreheater72

Yes

Its all about 02 permeation.
Each layer adds X amount of barrier to the outside, when a layer is compromised it no longer adds any protection, shortening the lifespan overall.