So I have a follow-up US MRE review today. We’ve gotten a bunch of snow (Nov 01&02) and more is expected tomorrow. I was out shoveling the walks and driveway and developed a nice appetite. I figured a hot MRE would hit the spot and reached into my box of 10-year-old MRE’s.
This review will cover a 2007 Menu No 8 “Beef Patty”, lot code 32 7152. I purchased this ration from a military commissary in 2009. Since then it has been stored in my basement, “a cool dry place”, in a large Rubbermaid container. Until lunchtime today.
The tan outer bag was intact. I used the pull-apart feature to open the bag, albeit with some difficulty. OR maybe I was just tired from snow shoveling.
This menu has an odd selection of items:
- Grilled Beef Patty
- Macaroni and Cheese, Mexican-style
- Nacho Cheese Pretzels
- Wheat Snack Bread (x 2)
- Cheese Spread with Bacon
- BBQ Sauce
- Beverage Base Powder, Lemon-Lime
- Accessory packet
- Hot Beverage Bag & FRH
The inner bag had a sight hole on one side, but all contents appeared to be intact and well preserved.
The accessory packet contained the usual items, but no coffee! In this retired military person’s opinion, every MRE should have coffee.
- Matches
- Tissue paper
- Gum
- Moist towelette
- Iced Tea Drink Mix
- Salt
- Tabasco sauce
As you can see, the Tabasco’s color has faded, but it still tasted great. With heat!
I started by mixing up the Lemon-Lime drink. I used warm water which helps these drink mixes dissolve more readily. This drink still tasted fresh, if you can call a generic sports-drink beverage ‘fresh’. Check out that hyper-green color.
While warming the beef patty, mac & cheese, and cheese sauce in a pan of hot water, I opened the nacho cheese pretzels. These are just like the original Combos snack food and are very tasty. These seemed perfectly fresh and edible.
My tasting assistant loved the Combos.
Once the mains were warmed up, I plated my less-than-enticing looking lunch:
Each component was tasted individually first.
The Wheat snack bread (both slices) were still ‘fresh’ tasting. Snack bread always has an odd preservative or chemical flavor, but finishes with a sweet taste. Kinda reminds me of the crust of a Pop-tart. Both slices were slightly dry, but not much more than normal. Both were edible. My tasting assistant clearly agreed.
The beef patty was oblong and had artificial grill marks. I think the grill marks really do add to the appeal of this item. They are obviously fake, but still, I wanted to believe….
The patty is quite dense, but still easy to chew. It does have a beefy flavor, not unlike the little bits of beef one gets in some canned soups. Overall, it was edible and pleasant tasting.
The Macaroni and Cheese was insipid and pasty. The noodles were mushy and bland. The sauce was creamy, true, and did convey a sense of cheese, but seemed more like sour paste. The Mac & Cheese was edible but not worth eating. I think I had this ration while serving on active duty and had the same impression. A bit of Tabasco helped. A lot.
Also shown in the picture above, I mixed up the iced-tea. This was decent with a sweet, artificial lemon flavor, and a pleasant bitter (tannin) finish. I think this a reasonable beverage mix and can be serve hot or cold.
To wrap things up, I added some BBQ sauce to the beef patty and ate all the components together. The overall effect was pretty good, but falls far short of an actual burger. Both the bread and BBQ sauce add excessive sweetness for my palate. And both masked the beef flavor. Still, that’s probably the way I’d eat it again.
I was going to add the cheese spread to the burger as well, but, as seen in the photo, the mix had separated. I had kneaded the packet of cheese sauce before and after warming it in the hot water. I've always heated my cheese sauces to make them easier to use. Perhaps I let it heat up too long. I tried the split cheese sauce on it's own: it had that classic, sour, artificial cheese flavor. I don't think I noticed any 'bacon' flavor. I did end up smearing the beef patty with a little of the cheese, and that may have helped the overall flavor. But I think cheese sauce may be an acquired taste.
For the sake of thoroughness, I’ll add that the towelette from the accessory pack was moist and effective. The gum was slightly hard, but still had a good peppermint flavor and was pleasant to chew. The matches still lit easily. The salt remained granular and not clumped.
I find this Menu to be a bit odd. There are three ‘cheese’ items (Cheese Spread and Mac & cheese and Combos) which seems redundant. I get the idea that two wheat snack breads could be used to make a “burger bun”, but that would completely mask the burger flavor. The meal seems very starch heavy with bread, pretzels, and macaroni. My chief disappointments with this ration are 1) no coffee, and 2) no dessert. Overall though, it made a filling lunch, especially welcome after being out working in the snow.
Thank for checking out this review of a 10-year-old US MRE!
