1991 “Brown Bag” MRE Menu #5 - Spaghetti with Meat and Sauce

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Deadheadmatt
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Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:45 am
Location: Boise, ID

1991 “Brown Bag” MRE Menu #5 - Spaghetti with Meat and Sauce

Post by Deadheadmatt » Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:57 pm

This was an interesting MRE to sample. Again, it came from the same era as some of the others I have review (early 1990’s). These were some of the first improved MREs compared to earlier K and C rations. This particular one was issued to my buddy who fought fires over the summer during that time for the BLM/Forest Service. It’s storage conditions were a little dubious, but I gave it the old college try. I also chose to heat the MRE up in boiling water this time, as opposed to trying a Flameless Ration Heater, as I wanted to make sure it was fully reheated. I also put the Cheese Spread in the hot water, as it felt pretty hard and congealed in the package and I was hoping that would help. It did not!

The ration itself had contents dating it to very early February, 1991, for manufacture. It appears they had begun using the larger, brown plastic spoons around this time, as it had one as opposed to the little white spoon found in earlier rations. The contents of the ration included:

Spaghetti with Meat and Sauce
Maple Nut Cake
Oranger Beverage Base Powder
Cheese Spread
Crackers
Accessory Pack A (as opposed to B, as listed on the outer package)
Coffee
Non-dairy Creamer
Tabasco
Toilet Paper X2
Salt X2
Matches
Gum

The Spaghetti was edible. I’d compare it to a canned version that was overly processed and extremely soft. Salt and spice content was acceptable and didn’t need any extra seasoning. The crackers were fine but stale. The CHEESE was evil. There’s no other way to describe it. Heating it up didn’t help at all. It was rotten to the core and had to be double bagged and thrown away outside. Usually the dog will try anything. She’s still hiding under the bed!

The Maple Nut Cake was partially edible. The cake part had a pleasant maple flavor, but the nuts were obviously bad. I don’t know if they were pecans or walnuts, but their spongey consistency and overall bitter taste indicated they had gone bad (not as bad at the cheese). The remainder of the ration, the drinks and accessories were OK. The creamer never really broke down and dissolved and it ruined the coffee. The Orange drink was extremely sweet, partly due to it being flavored with sugar as opposed to an artificial sweetener.

As I said above, my buddy gave me this one and said it would have been one he would have liked out in the field. However, he did mention that the summer firefighters tended to get leftovers or rejects from government storage. He couldn’t remember exactly when he got this one, but it had too early to mid 90’s.

Thanks again for watching.

https://youtu.be/lh3qhjTf6jU

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