MRE Menu No. 7 BEEF STEW and Menu No. 9 PORK CHOW MEIN 1995

[mreheater72]

Hi guys,

last week I visited my basement and decided to open and taste two dark brown MREs from 1995 (the last year the dark brown MREs appear ):

Menu No. 7: BEEF STEW (date code 5335, December 1995)
Menu No. 9: PORK CHOW MEIN (date code 5338, December 1995)



Both were packed by CINPAC INC., Ohio and I guess they were from the same case, but I´m not sure for 100 %. The pouches were look a little bit used, but they were dense, no little holes or tears .

Dark brown MREs packed by CINPAC, INC. were, as I know, usually stamped with the date code on the MRE pouch, I guess CINPAC was the only packer, which did that.



The first part of the review should discuss Menu No. 7 BEEF STEW:



Here are the single entrees:











Beef Stew, SO-PAK-CO (5289)
Crackers (5291)
Cheese Spread, Thermo Pac (5292)
Cocoa Beverage Powder, Trans-Packers Services Corp. (5279)
Sugar Free Lemonade Drink Mix, Jianas Brothers Packaging CO. (5214)
Cookie Bar, Chocolate Covered, Sterling Foods, Inc. (5303)
M&M´s Plain, Division of Mars, Inc. (5321)
Accessory Packet A (5320) (Coffee, Creamer, Sugar, Iodized Salt, Chewing Gum, Matches, Wet Nap Moist Towelette (5240), Toilet Paper, Tabasco( 5244))
MRE Heater Zestotherm, Inc. (5298)
MRE Spoon, dark brown

Now the taste test:

Alle entrees at one glance:



The BEEF STEW was yummy, good smell and taste, with real meat (not with pressed meat like the present Beef Stew ).



The CRACKERS taste well, I think they are more crunchy like Crackers of today, the CHEESE SPREAD smells not really good, the colour has changed to light brown, I throw in the trash , the Crackers I ate with Grape Jelly from 2007, real good .





The COCOA BEVERAGE POWDER smelled terrible, also was the taste ! That’s not what I expected from a beverage base !!

The SUGAR FREE LEMONADE DRINK MIX was ok, tasted fine .

The COOKIE BAR, CHOCOLATE COVERED was excellent ; I miss it in the present MREs . It was a really good entree. Sorry, I forgot to take a close-up .

The M&M´s PLAIN smelled like fresh ones, I could not taste any difference.



All ACCESSORY PACKET A items were ok, even the freeze dried coffee !

The MRE heater doesn’t work promptly, but after about ten minutes it gets really hot .

Here you can see that 1995 the dark brown spoon already had appeared.

All in all the Menu No. 7 was good for its age of over 13 years, but I was really surprised the the COCOA BEVERAGE POWDER had gone bad .

The second part of the review with Menu No. 9 PORK CHOW MEIN will follow the next days .

So long mreheater72

[kman]

Cool review and nice pics! I was worried when I saw that cheese spread but I'm glad to hear you didn't eat it.

[norge]

cool test my friend!

i have eaten the cheese spread just looking like that,found it good
but thats me you know

and yes the old style beef stews are the best,real beef!
AND bring back the COOKIE BAR, CHOCOLATE COVERED!!!!!!!!!!!

cheers from norge

[mreheater72]

Hi guys,

today I will show you the second part of my 1995 MRE review with Menu No. 9:

PORK CHOW MEIN



Here you can see the date code “5338”printed on the upper edge of the MRE pouch:



The next four pics show all the entrees still in their wrappers:













Pork Chow Mein, Shelf Stable Foods, Inc. (5271)
Noodles, Chow Mein, Trans-Packers Services Corp. (5276)
Crackers (5293)
Peanut Butter, Thermo Pac (5297)
Beverage Base Powder Cherry, Trans-Packers Services Corp. (5136)
Cookie Bar, Chocolate Covered, Sterling Foods, Inc. (5317)
Charms
Accessory Packet A (5335) (Coffee, Creamer, Sugar, Iodized Salt, Chewing Gum, Matches, Wet Nap Moist Towelette (5240), Toilet Paper, Tabasco(5271))
MRE Heater Zestotherm, Inc. (5299)
MRE Spoon, dark brown

Here the entrees without package at one glance (beside the Pork Chow Mein, the Beverage Base and the Accessory Packet items):



The PORK CHOW MEIN was still ok, the smell and also the taste, but despite of that I do not like it. After opening the NOODLES, CHOW MEIN a terrible smell filled the room . Although it is dry item, it has gone bad! I cannot describe the smell, but it was really awful !!





The CRACKERS were very good, crispy and with good taste, also the PEANUT BUTTER very creamy and with full peanut flavour, yummy !!





The COOKIE BAR, CHOCOLATE COVERED was as excellent as it was by the Beef Stew review , I still have not found an alternative in current MRE entrees .



The CHARMS looked not really appetizing, they were soft like rubber! They went to the trash !



All ACCESSORY PACKET A items were ok, beside the freeze dried coffee, it looked like coal !

Here in comparison to the coffee from the Beef Stew review with exact the same age:







The MRE heater doesn’t work a bit , it stayed cool, even after twenty minutes waiting.

The spoon also was dark brown as by the Beef Stew.

All in all I am surprised that here also, as by the Beef Stew, the dry entree has gone bad . Also it is amazing, that here ( compared to the Beef Stew items with the same age) the coffee had gone bad an the heater didn´t work .

So long mreheater72

[housil]

Gunpowder?



Nice review

[norge]

howdy mreheater72

i think heat is a killer to the dry items in a mre,i had coffee like that to
also had coffe with fungus in it DIDNT DRINK IT
most of the charms i had are sticky to,but in real heat
stressed rations they become soft as soup just the paper
holding them togeather..

anyway loved your review,pork chow mein wasent
my favorite eather only the oatmel chocolat bar

cheers from norge

[kman]

I'm guessing those Chow Mein Noodles have some egg and/or butter in them and that's what might have gone bad - kind of the like the shortbread cookies in the those heat-stressed MREs.

[sag45]

Nice and Good review, GOOD JOB! The oldest I have is 1995 so I have a bit to wait before a good review and if I dont tap into the box anymore its my only and oldest case. I did try some 2005 (we thought maybe 1995 - not sure)Taster's Choice coffee that was black (gun powder) and regular in appearance - brown. I drank both of them thru two days at work. A friend had some somewhere in the house and passed them on. They both tasted the same, but I did notice that with the black coffee and into the later day my stomach felt a little upset, not to make me go to the restroom, but just the "NOT FEELING TOO WELL!" thing. Some Pepto Bismo took care of that. Walmart sells those individual Taster's Choice tube packs, about 7 in a box for about a buck I think.