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This was one of the fabled decades-frozen classic MREs that steve1989 was able to acquire earlier this year. This 1996 Menu 5 Spaghetti with Meat Sauce had been frozen for almost 20 years before it was finally thawed out and passed my way a few months ago. I was worried that it would continue to degrade now that it had finally left the deep freeze, so I had to make sure it got a proper review sooner rather than later.
The contents of this vintage MRE are:

• Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (6106)
• Crackers (6220)
• Oatmeal Cookie Bar (6205)
• Peanut Butter
• Tabasco Sauce (6158)
• Charms
• Beverage Base Powder, Grape
• Sweetened Iced Tea, Lemon
• Cocoa Beverage Powder
• Toilet Paper
• Iodized Salt
• Matches
• Chiclets Gum
• Flameless Ration Heater
• The out of place item - Cream Substitute, Dry, Non-Dairy

I plated the meal while the FRH did its job. For 20 years old, this one fired up to as hot as I've ever seen them get and outlasted the 10 minute cook time. The meal was piping hot, which is always appreciated with older rations. The spaghetti itself was a little more plain than the modern version, but that's where the Tabasco and salt came in. By the time I finished the bowl I started wondering how I've ever eaten spaghetti without hot sauce before! I thoroughly enjoyed this 20 year old entree ::mrgreen::

There wasn't a side with this one, but there was definitely enough food. With the meal I decided to go all out and try each of the three drinks. The grape drink was a sweet match to the spiced up pasta, and the iced tea went well with the peanut butter and crackers. I had the oatmeal cookie bar with the cocoa. The cocoa was just starting to go off, but was within the acceptable range - just the tiniest bit of numb-tongue. I dunked some of the cookie bar in the cocoa with the intent of softening it, but I should have known better. Nothing softens a cookie brick!

The Charms candies were in perfect shape and I'm going to be enjoying them for a while before I finish them all. I don't know that I'd want to make them my breakfast, lunch and dinner like you'd get abandoning ship at sea these days, but I can think of worse things. I finished the meal off with the mint bubblegum and cleaned up with the moist towelette. Gotta hand it to NIPC of Riverside, NJ - it was still in good shape and did the job just fine.

Overall, for being two decades old, this was in pretty much perfect shape. Every piece of the ration was still edible, and even more than that - down-rite enjoyable!

Did you freeze it this long or are they "officially" stored frozen somewhere?

Steve purchased the case from someone that had stored it frozen shortly after getting it if I understand correctly.

Wow, very cool! It's neat to see an older one still in new condition, thanks for sharing!