1984 MRE Case + Beef, Ground, with Spiced Sauce MRE Review

[SentientTootsieRoll]

I had a 1984 case of MREs laying around here for about a year and I finally decided to open it and start reviewing the case. I figure it's a good time to do it now before the MREs are totally inedible. The first one I chose was the Beef, Ground, with Spiced Sauce menu. I've had versions of this menu that were a few years newer and were still good! I have high hopes for this one! First, let's take a look at the case. After all, you don't get a chance to see an MRE case this old very often.

Top of the case

Side of the case

Side of the case

Side of the case

The bottom of the case

After removing the outer cardboard sleeve

The case upon opening

[SentientTootsieRoll]

Front of the MRE

Back of the MRE

Inside the MRE, right after opening

All components laid out, on a tray of course!

Retort pouch for the main meal

Cookies, chocolate covered

Accessory packet items

Coffee, creamer and sugar prior to adding water

Everything fully prepared

This is a unique looking one. First off, I just love the brown and green aesthetic these older MREs have. Something about it is just very appealing, for whatever reason. The first thing I decided to do was to open the main and put the retort pouch in some hot water. The retort pouch was folded and glued to the cardboard box, which is an interesting design. But I guess it worked for the time! I'd also like to add that the packaging smelled like Crayola crayons. Did they always smell like that?

I then began opening the rest of the items and getting them on the tray. This ration had a lot of great components: freeze dried fruit, chocolate covered cookies, a chocolate toffee bar, and well-baked, salted crackers. If this were still 1984, I'm sure this would have been my favorite MRE.

The first problem I ran into was trying to get the peanut butter onto the tray. In the packaging, it was as hard as a rock. I had to really knead it because the oil had separated almost completely, but after fighting with the packaging and the peanut butter, I finally got it onto the tray and declared victory to an inanimate object for the first time in my life.

After the main was heated well enough, I poured it onto the tray. I was pretty excited because it smelled pretty good, although it did have that cheap barbecue sauce flavor, but that didn't bother me. I took a very small bite into it, and at first it tasted okay, but a slightly sour taste began to fill my mouth. It was bad, unfortunately. On the plus side, that leaves us with the rest! The freeze dried fruit had me a little concerned because the packaging wasn't vacuum sealed, but the fruit was still good! I never add water to it, half the fun is eating it dry. The crackers were simply amazing. You could really taste the wheat and they were very well toasted and salted. Absolutely no complaints there. I didn't add any peanut butter to them because I thought that would ruin the experience!

The chocolate cookies were very tasty! They were just like the chocolate covered oatmeal cookies, but in a circular shape. I was really happy these were still good. The chocolate toffee bar tasted like chocolate with some kind of oat or wheat inside. Although I think time and deprecation took away the intended taste, it was surprisingly really good! And it wasn't sour or anything!

The peanut butter was the closest thing to protein I got with this meal, since the main was bad. I just ate it directly. Half way through this meal, I was already beginning to feel full. I know these older MREs were known for their small portions but it really filled me up.

[Salmon19]

Great review. Shame the main went bad, I hope the rest are still edible.

[SentientTootsieRoll]

Thank you! Everything else was in fact still edible and enjoyable!

I also just realized that I forgot to post the final picture showing the everything fully prepared. I updated the post to show it.

[Cortexmelon]

Those early 80's MRE's seem to go mostly weird entree wise it seems lol. I had a frankfurters, and a ham and chicken loaf seemed to get a weird metallic taste for those when I had it. However, the freeze dried meats were fine, so guess it depends haha

[SentientTootsieRoll]

I'm very careful about eating these older rations. It's expired food that's older than I am, so safety is very important. Whenever I break open them open, I try to make sure I'm not too hungry and in some cases, even if the main tastes good, I still don't eat it entirely because I'm just not willing to take the chance. I already got sick once from eating an early 1980s LRP ration about a year ago. Luckily it wasn't anything close to critical or fatal, it was still a pretty bad aftermath that could have been far worse.

Regardless, it's still a lot of fun to open these up and get them documented before they become another piece of lost history. I would also encourage others that have older rations to take pictures/video and document the ration for the sake of historical preservation, rather than just eating it and forgetting about it.

[DANTHEMANDOTCOM]

Solid review my man! I've one of these menus in my hidey hole, err stash/collection, I should say lol. Found it at the gun show a couple weeks ago for just a few clams. Hopefully I'll have a bit of luck and the main will sill be edible. And who doesn't love the old school chocolate covered cookies eh?!

[SentientTootsieRoll]

Thanks! I did enquirer with Wornick, Sterling Foods, and a few other manufactures of the chocolate oatmeal cookie and only one company replied to my email wherein I requested the recipe for it. They replied back and said something along the lines of "As you know, the item is no longer made, so we don't have the recipe." Now, I won't claim to be the most honest person that ever lived, but come on. If you're unwilling to dig up a few stacks of papers to find the recipe for me, just say so.

I was pretty annoyed at their response, but at least they did respond unlike the other companies I reached out to. Maybe I'll try again in a few years. Hopefully the next round of corporate layoffs will result in better PR.