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Super cold night for Virginia 16 degrees. So it was a good night to light the old 1966 Rogers G.I. stove and see how rations from 1987 have held up.
This is a meal I had kept in the basement in the old case since 1987. Never rough handled or exposed to temp changes
Even the print on the bag was very legible. I used the Rogers G.I. stove to heat up the coffee and notice the G.I. canteen cup does not sit very well on the burner . So I used the top of stove container and had to transfer it with made in Sweden Civilian camping stove tongs(purpose made tool from the 1970's) If you use alcohol on the primer cup as a preheated the stove works like a 1950's F 86 or M.I.G. 15 Jet Engine. It roars So I began un-packing the meal and noticed all entrees were total dry and no stains on the cardboard.
Laid out Opened crackers and could hear the air hissing. They were 90% intact and still snapped when you broke them.
Tasted one and it tasted salty and still was crunchy. The flavor was about 1/3 less than a 2010's cracker
Peanut butter was opened and smelled fine, took a taste and it seemed normal. No off taste, nothing out of the ordinary. It seemed perfectly fresh
Tried the pears next and they also hissed when opened, No funny smell, I tried one and it seemed to be perfectly preserved. Tasted just fined, I could have eaten the entire item. Cookie was next. It smelled fresh and the covering was solid. I broke it into two sections and tried one. It tasted somewhat off, but still edible. No rancid flavor, no metaltic taste. Still sweet and a first rate job of preservation. The BBQ was next. I opened it and it smelled like BBQ flavor meat snack. No foulness at all. I laid it out and cut it in sections. The marbling was clearly visible.
I took a small bite and thought the flavor was about like a section of BBQ Jerky in a plastic pouch. Very chewy and sweet. I spit it out to be on the safe side. I am on the fence if it was still edible. But just by smell and taste, it seemed to have held up very well.
In bag In mess tin Slice close up Coffee was last, It smelled just like an old jar of Maxwell House Instant. Very nutty I tried it without cream and just sugar first. the taste was of weak instant, slightly metalic taste, but still able to drink it. I added the cream and took a taste, it tasted bad. I think the creamer has the shortest life of any accessory.


The gum was rock hard as usual, just a tiny bit of mint flavor left. I did not want to break my teeth so I spit it out.

On thing I noticed is there was no drink mix in this meal. Nothing but coffee. I wonder why? This would be the meal for Orange or Grape mix for sure.
My final thoughts on this MRE are. This was one of the best main courses offered at the time. Filling and a mild sweet BBQ taste that most Americans like.
The spoon way to short for this and it was messy to eat out of the pouch at the time. The modern Long Spoon would have been welcome.
To bad this was not paired with rice in the main pouch. Then starch, protein and sugar all in one.
Cookie outstanding at the time and fruit block also well liked. Both items could be stuffed in a Field Jacket and eaten quickly as a snack.
I placed the remains of the meal outside last night and it was gone this morning. Something ate it.
Fox, or coon.




Meal packed as
Beef Slices with Barbecue Sauce
Menu NO. 4
Accessory pack A
By
Southern Package and storage. Inc
Mullins, South Carolina
29574

Beef slices With BBQ Sauce

Packed by Shelf Stable foods
Evansville, Indiana
47715

Code 9990 6219123 G

Pears
Oregon Freeze Dry Foods Inc
Albany Oregon
97321
Code S 116

Accessory bag packed by Southern Packing

Peanut Butter Fortified
Kern Foods industry California
91749

Crackers
Southern Packaging
Mullins SC

Cookie Bar Chocolate Covered
Sterling bakery
5772 Kenwick
San Antonio Texas
‎78238

Coffee instant type I
General Foods corp
White Plains N.Y.
10625

Cream substitute
Beatrice company
P.O. box 4800
Ellerton California
92331

Salt
Diamond Crystal Salt company
Wilmington M.A. 01187

Sugar.
Amstar Corp
N.Y. N.Y.

Toilet paper
‎TUFCO
Green Bay Wis

Matches
Q B BEAN and Sons Corp
N.C.

Nice review! VERY rare to find one of these that is still palatable.

Nice review! It seems to have held up pretty well. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us! I think I've got one of those from that era in the stash somewhere, and will have to break it out one of these days to see how it fared as well.

Hey thanks for going into detail on each of the components' manufacturers, adds even more info to a great review.

Those freeze dried pears were the most sought after item in any ration I ever heard of while I was at Bragg. We used to pack a whole mess of miniature alcohol bottles with us and the crushed powdered pears would smooth things out when you didn't exactly need the full blast of whisky or whatever your poison was. Wish they still made em.

Nice review and thanks for sharing.

A little late to the party on this one. First off, i really liked this review, Norton!

You always give a fantastically detailed description to all the components and with excellent pictures.

I have one of these menus in the collection and i'm now contemplating trying it out.
Love freeze dried fruit squares and chocolate covered cookies. Wish i had a warehouse full of them!

Thank you for also providing the fine details of where the components were packed. Well done, Norton!

Hey, are you looking for any specific vintage MRE's?
Lemme know if you are I may have one, gotta keep these fantastic Norton reviews going! We all love them.

gundog4314 wrote:Those freeze dried pears were the most sought after item in any ration I ever heard of while I was at Bragg. We used to pack a whole mess of miniature alcohol bottles with us and the crushed powdered pears would smooth things out when you didn't exactly need the full blast of whisky or whatever your poison was. Wish they still made em.

Nice review and thanks for sharing.

Those things really are good aren't they?? Man, that is a cool backstory on those - sounds like fun! Thanks for sharing it gundog and yessir they need to bring these back!!