MREInfo.com

Greetings Rationauts! With a new baby in the household, I haven't had nearly the free time to spend here on the forums or in the field enjoying rations. I lucked out this week with the wife and baby out of town for a few days, so I indulged in my favorite hobby, rations! Today, I'm stepping back in time to 1987 and the much-feared "Four Fingers of Death".

The bag does not have the menu number on the side, indicating a pre-1988 DOP. The bag is pretty worn, but still readable, and with no noticeable breaches in it's integrity.
Let's take a look at the contents. All inner components were intact, with no bulging in any of the packaging.
Wow, the ingredients were so much simpler back then!
The grape beverage powder had solidified for the most part. The cocoa beverage powder looked and smelled brand new.
Both beverages ready for water.
I heated using BIB method and plated on a mess hall dining tray.
I opened the accessory packet to find that something had leaked. It didn't appear to be the Tobasco, which was full and still liquid. The catsup was solid as they typically are at this age.
The beverages were good. Despite most of the mix being solidified, the taste was just fine. I used to enjoy the old artificial grape-flavor beverage. The cocoa beverage tasted just fine as well.

The crackers were a bit crumbly, but the taste was good, and appeared to have handled the test of time well. The grape jelly had lost all of it's grape flavor and tasted simply like a sweet jelly.

The frankfurters tasted about as I recall. They were pretty mushy. I don't remember them being so mushy, so I was a bit worried at this and did not consume much of it. It's been too long since I've had this menu when it was fairly new, and I don't remember what the texture was like then. I do remember the heartburn they would give me though!

The beans didn't seem to pick up any of the taste of the packaging, and still had a sweet, almost brown sugar-like taste that I have always enjoyed.

So, overall, this menu has stood the test of time pretty well, considering the fact that Ronald Reagan was embroiled in the Iran-Contra affair at about the time this was produced!

Thanks for reading!

Ooooh man, that’s a sweet sweet look at this ration. Congrats on the baby, I don’t remember if I said so already haha

I loved these beans w/ tomato sauce most!

The frankfurters look scary how preserved they are. so artificial looking. Congrats on the baby by the way!

That must have been stored in ideal (pristine) conditions. That's the best looking rendition of this menu I've ever seen! I always thought I would never have an opportunity to taste this one due to age, availability and expected condition... but this review offers hope. Thanks!

Nothing beats an old school written and photo set review, thank you parafireboy! Hope you had Tums on standby!
That old style grape beverage base was superior, albeit when reconstituted it looked almost black sometimes.

If fresh, the beans w tomato sauce is a treat.. wish it was still made!

This inspires me to check out a 1993 Smoked Frankfurters, the reintroduction of four fingers, but smoky franks instead of just plain hotdogs in a pouch.. the fake smoke flavor was not much better though.

steve1989 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:17 pm

Nothing beats an old school written and photo set review, thank you parafireboy! Hope you had Tums on standby!
That old style grape beverage base was superior, albeit when reconstituted it looked almost black sometimes.

If fresh, the beans w tomato sauce is a treat.. wish it was still made!

This inspires me to check out a 1993 Smoked Frankfurters, the reintroduction of four fingers, but smoky franks instead of just plain hotdogs in a pouch.. the fake smoke flavor was not much better though.

I must say though, when I had a 1984 frankfurters, I could barely finish one lol. I actually ate all the frankfurters in the 1993 version, I quite liked em! They would've been even better if that bread would've been introduced into the MRE's like they said they were going ng to do according to things I've read about them.

RGoodellSr wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:31 am

That must have been stored in ideal (pristine) conditions. That's the best looking rendition of this menu I've ever seen! I always thought I would never have an opportunity to taste this one due to age, availability and expected condition... but this review offers hope. Thanks!

It might have come from Dudeman253. I've bought more than a dozen from Dudeman and they are the highest stored quality brownbags I have come across. There have only been a few items that I chose not to eat, and nothing was spoiled. I bought them to eat, not to collect. If you want to try the four fingers or others, check him out. He also supplied Foreign MRE with some of their vintage MRE's, so those are good too.

mikeoverhere wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2020 6:30 pm

It might have come from Dudeman253. I've bought more than a dozen from Dudeman and they are the highest stored quality brownbags I have come across. There have only been a few items that I chose not to eat, and nothing was spoiled. I bought them to eat, not to collect. If you want to try the four fingers or others, check him out. He also supplied Foreign MRE with some of their vintage MRE's, so those are good too.

Have you heard from him recently? I asked him if he'd ship to Canada on New Years, he said yup, I hit the "buy now" and haven't heard from him in over a month. His feedback is great, and this seems uncharacteristic

Agreed, seems uncharacteristic for him, My deals were some time ago but he was very communicative, usually within 24 hrs. I see he hasn't been active since the earlier part of December though. Hope he's okay. Maybe he made that one big deal, which it would have been considering the amount of stock he was sitting on.