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Here's a quick and dirty taste test. All Ameriqual. Anyone know what the A & b in the date code stand for?
Potato Cheddar Soup Flavored with Bacon Date 2289A Mild cheese flavor. Could use more potato cubes. Fairly watery. Ok overall but I probably wont buy it again.
Cornbread Stuffing. Date code 2103 Very pasty, not fluffy at all. Fairly bland. Weak corn flavor. I won't be buying this one again.
Pork Sausage Patty Maple Flavored Date Code2296b Very sweet with lots of syrup. Good texture. Would be good for breakfast. I'd buy again.
Garlic Chicken Breast Fillet. Date Code 3024b This one was a surprise. Great flaky texture. Lots of sauce. Great herb flavor. The wife really liked it so I'll buy more.
Grilled Jalapeno Pepper Jack Flavored Beef Patty Date Code 3121a I liked this one a lot. Fine ground texture. I found it to be picoso (hot). You may find it mild or excruciating so taste one before buying cases of it.

My wife is on the gluten dairy free kick this year. She approved of the ingredients of the Garlic Chicken Breast Fillet, and the Pork Sausage Patty Maple Flavored. I took pics of the box fronts if anyone is interested. I'm not a collector so I'll keep the pics for a little while.

The cornbread looks more like refried beans ...

Good reviews! I have found Ameriqual's products as hit or miss. They also produce some of the tray packs for the UGR. Interestingly the cornbread stuffing is one of such menu's too and it SUCKS just like you found.

Sadly, anything with a fluffy or crumbly texture (like corn bread) will naturally be flattened down into a taffy-like slab under vacuum packing pressures. A squeeze of 14 psi adds up to a hefty force on a 15 square inch piece of food. Items like rice can be easily fluffed back up, but not so baked items. All the "bread" items in MREs turn out to be solid slabs.

Very nice review, though. I'm really looking forward to the jalapeno beef (Menu 19 in the 2013 lineup).

First off let me say awesome review and pics. Interestingly we never had such issues with the MCI menus---- of course not, they were cans! We did not need those issues we had others like lack of dessert variety, items that were only barely edible when heated to boiling and then the can was tipped to drain the liquified grease when it was possible to. Although there are still issues with the MRE items, they are better than the MCI stuff in soooooo many ways!

Thanks for the compliments. Yeah the cornbread texture was exactly like re-fried beans. Its interesting that they don't use regular dry stuffing mix like the ones that come out around thanksgiving. Maybe it would be more appropriate for the cold weather rations since those require boiling water.

Hardtack wrote:Here's a quick and dirty taste test. All Ameriqual. Anyone know what the A & b in the date code stand for?

Good question, but I can’t answer it . I’m also interested for the meaning!

Hardtack wrote:Cornbread Stuffing. Date code 2103…
Very pasty, not fluffy at all. Fairly bland. Weak corn flavor.

RockyRaab wrote:Sadly, anything with a fluffy or crumbly texture (like corn bread) will naturally be flattened down into a taffy-like slab under vacuum packing pressures. A squeeze of 14 psi adds up to a hefty force on a 15 square inch piece of food. Items like rice can be easily fluffed back up, but not so baked items. All the "bread" items in MREs turn out to be solid slabs.

Rocky Raab, you are right, the "Cornbread Stuffing" is really compressed. But even if you try to make it fluffy e. g. with a fork (then it looks more appetizing), the taste will not get really better . There is a lack of spices or salt .

Hardtack wrote:Garlic Chicken Breast Fillet. Date Code 3024b

Garlic Chik.jpg

This one was a surprise. Great flaky texture. Lots of sauce. Great herb flavor. The wife really liked it so I'll buy more.
Grilled Jalapeno Pepper Jack Flavored Beef Patty Date Code 3121a

Grilled Jalapeno.jpg

I liked this one a lot. Fine ground texture. I found it to be picoso (hot). You may find it mild or excruciating so taste one before buying cases of it.

Hardtack, thank you for the review of those "brand new" entrées . In Germany that time even 2012 packed MREs are still not available, for 2013 MREs I guess we will have to wait at least another two years . Did the 2013 MRE pouches already show the French printing of the entrée?

So long mreheater72

Great review mate welcome to the board.
Look forward to next post
Yowie

Just in case there's any confusion - the Cornbread Stuffing is an entirely different item from the Cornbread. The MRE Cornbread is about the same size, shape and density as a poundcake or carrot cake. The Cornbread Stuffing is a mix of crumbs, spices, fat, corn meal, etc - it's always going to be a lot denser than the regular cornbread. The UGR, even though it can't be crushed, is just as dense as the MRE side item when it comes to the stuffing. As far as taste goes, I love em! I've served a few trays of the UGR Cornbread Stuffing at Burning Man and never had any leftovers, although to be honest a few folks didn't like it (which is really rare when I serve military food out there).