Latvian ration 4 years past Best By date

Reviews of rations from abroad - British ration packs, EPA, IMP, RCIR, etc.
Post Reply
Teddydogno1
Posts: 166
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:11 pm
Location: Tacoma, WA

Latvian ration 4 years past Best By date

Post by Teddydogno1 » Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:38 pm

Continuing my plan to eat through some of my older but still recent rations, today I sliced into a Latvian NR1 ration with a Best By date of 11/30/2018. I don't see an actual pack date on it, but I think they are only 2 or 3 years from pack to bb.

Image

The main course is "Chicken with rice", with supporting cast of rye bread, rice porridge with mushrooms, strawberry jam (x2), hard candies, raisin and cranberry mix, instant coffee (x4), citrus green tea bag, sugar (x2 big bags), gum, wet wip (as listed on bag), spoon (broken), package closer (rubber band), matches, and metal stove with Esbit fuel.

Image

While heating the can of chicken and rice in simmering water, I prepared the rice porridge with 100 ml of boiling water and let it soak in. Unfortunately, the rye bread didn't make it. It smelled fine, but had a off texture and some large spots of shiny, smooth texture that I couldn't rule out as mold or spoilage. I brought in some stunt crackers to try with the jam, which was not spoiled but was hardened to the point of being un-spreadable. Still good flavor though. The raisin/cranberry mix was also fine, but somewhat sugary and a little hard or even grainy. I think they had been sweetened. I only ate the small number pictured on the plate.

Though the meal had FOUR instant coffee packs, it had no cold beverages, so again I brought in a "stand in": Lipton can of iced tea. Warm afternoons are not when I want coffee (I may try one in the morning).

10 minutes in the simmering water bath got the main course nice and hot and the rice porridge was ready at the same time.

Image
Image
Image

The porridge was fine. It had little flavor but it was hearty and completely edible. The Chicken and Rice ROCKED! I would totally eat that with a spoon (and did)! Seriously, I'd buy that in the store and eat it regularly. It was just a little oily and had a hint of salt and was just really excellent food, and filling too! I followed lunch with some of the hard candies which were in great shape and had generic fruity, sweet flavor.

Overall, this was a great meal and I would not have been disappointed to have it in the field. But I did miss out on that dark rye bread!

Any and all comments are welcome. Let me know if you guys find these written reviews interesting and worth continuing. Thanks!

Rob

Post Reply