1983-84 (?) Chili Con Carne Food Packet Long Range Patrol Review

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SentientTootsieRoll
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1983-84 (?) Chili Con Carne Food Packet Long Range Patrol Review

Post by SentientTootsieRoll » Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:40 pm

For dinner, I decided to dig though a case of 1977 LRPs I have and this one stood out from the others since the bag is made of stronger plastic material compared to the others and is also produced by a different contractor. It's a Chili Con Carne LRP produced by Cadillac Products Inc. Since the case was open box when I purchased it, my assumption is that this LRP was thrown in the box years later. I will expand more on that. I also noticed that it had a lot of dust/dirt on it. That makes me wonder if it was issued to a GI at one point.
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Here's what the inside of the ration looked like prior to removing the contents.
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Here are the contents of the ration laid out on the tray.
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This LRP includes Chili Con Carne, Accessory Packet for Menu No. 2 and Toilet Paper. The cardboard sleeve above the tray was wrapped around the Chili Con Carne packaging to prevent it being damaged. It had some tears in it so I think it did its job well enough.

Notice how the accessory packet was marked for this specific meal instead of being generalized by letters A-E like they were in the MREs. Speaking of which, let's take a look at what's inside of the accessory packet.
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The accessory packet includes 2 Coffee Instant Type I packets, sugar, creamer, matches and a coconut candy bar.

The freeze dried contents felt airtight but the aluminum and plastic wrapping around it was pretty loose. Despite that, I think it may still be good to eat. Here's a closeup of the Chili Con Carne prior to adding boiling water.
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And here's the entire meal prepared and a closeup of the coconut candy bar!
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First off, I think this meal was prepared in 1983 or 1984. If you take a look at the accessory packet, it was packed by "Quality Packaging Supply Corp." from Rochester, NY. I went to OpenCorporates.com and found out that company existed from October 1983 - December 1994. Another clue was the blue toilet paper. I've only seen this in MREs dated from 1982 - 1984.

The chili con carne was actually really tasty! I could tell it had a high sodium count like many of these older LRPs do but the texture was similar to refried beans with bits of beef and pinto or kidney beans added. Some of the beans didn't rehydrate properly but I think this is pretty common because I've noticed the same thing with current production "Rice & Chicken Mexican Style" and "Chili Macaroni w/ Beef" MCWs. In fact, the flavor was somewhat reminiscent of the "Chili Macaroni w/ Beef" MCW. The chocolate on the coconut candy bar was pretty sour but I could still taste the coconut in it. I think the bar hardened up quite a bit over the years but it was very similar to a Mounds bar.

Since it's the evening I decided to prepare the coffee with creamer and sugar but I only used one packet of coffee. I will the save the other for another day. It was a great way to finish off the ration. It's been about an hour since I consumed it and I still feel okay but I guess I'll know for sure by tomorrow morning. That's how long it took for me the last time I got sick consuming a bad LRP. Since this was pretty edible and tasty, I think I will be okay.

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