2009 Chicken Pesto Pasta MRE Review
Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:53 pm
Continuing on with my "choose a random MRE sitting in the closet and try it" adventures, I dug out a 2009 chicken pesto pasta MRE. Given that this ration is 11 years old and I don't know what it's storage conditions were prior to a few months ago, I was curious about this one.
Here are the contents of the accessory packet.
The chicken pesto pasta and applesauce in their retort pouches.
And least but not least, the entire ration fully prepared!
Wow, the smell of garlic and seasonings from the chicken pesto pasta with really strong. I never really liked this meal all that much because it was too oily and the flavors were too strong. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, this meal didn't quite pan out. I took a small bite of chicken and it was a bit sour and metallic tasting. I took a few more small bites and got the same result.
The applesauce was pretty fermented as you may be able to tell. Either this MRE was stored in a hot climate for too long or 11 years is simply too long for applesauce to last without fermenting. Of all the MREs I've opened over the years, I'm still not clear on the cutoff point for that. The wheat snack bread was bit stale and hard, paired with the bacon cheese spread, it tasted okay but it was not very enjoyable. I think the cheese spread was starting to go bad, based on the chunky texture. The bacon flavoring was strong, almost to the point of masking the fact that the cheese spread itself is bad.
The tropical fruit punch drink tasted okay for the first few sips but after that, I just didn't enjoy it. It's not sweet like Kool-Aid, it's almost like a sour-sweet and I'm not a big fan of it. I drank half of it and poured the other half down the drain. I guess that really leaves us with the vanilla pudding and the coffee, which were the only stable components in this ration. I absolutely loved the vanilla pudding, it gets messy while eating but that cheap vanilla flavor is amazing.
The applesauce was pretty fermented as you may be able to tell. Either this MRE was stored in a hot climate for too long or 11 years is simply too long for applesauce to last without fermenting. Of all the MREs I've opened over the years, I'm still not clear on the cutoff point for that. The wheat snack bread was bit stale and hard, paired with the bacon cheese spread, it tasted okay but it was not very enjoyable. I think the cheese spread was starting to go bad, based on the chunky texture. The bacon flavoring was strong, almost to the point of masking the fact that the cheese spread itself is bad.
The tropical fruit punch drink tasted okay for the first few sips but after that, I just didn't enjoy it. It's not sweet like Kool-Aid, it's almost like a sour-sweet and I'm not a big fan of it. I drank half of it and poured the other half down the drain. I guess that really leaves us with the vanilla pudding and the coffee, which were the only stable components in this ration. I absolutely loved the vanilla pudding, it gets messy while eating but that cheap vanilla flavor is amazing.
