MREInfo.com

Eating a Polish ration for lunch today, including the tooth-wrecking "panzerplatten" crackers. What is the purpose of these? They are not enjoyable to eat due to the hardness and having to nibble the corners to get any pieces off. They taste fine, if bland, but why make them dangerous? Surely they are not like this just to make them last longer? There are better ways of doing that and everything else in the ration is only good for 2 years anyway, so why include 100-year-shelflife crackers?


Rob

I personally find those crackers to be the most enjoyable cracker of any ration I’ve had so far, I wish they sold them in boxes, my theory as to why they are so hard is that in the event they come under enemy fire while they are trying to eat, the soldiers will be able to quickly put their crackers together to form an impenetrable wall

Teddydogno1 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:05 pm

What is the purpose of these?

To make you tough

Serious, due to the extended baking time, most water vapes out of the crackers. This increases shelf life (without chemicals). Nowadays I guess hardtack is more tradition in rations than necessary.

e.g. Germany has replaced the "Panzerplatten" with commercial made crackers.

Tip - eat them with your molars never had any issue eating them that way

I love them, maybe I’m biased being Polish and all

They make a handy scoop when the spoon breaks

CT sent me a bunch of his from the Lithuanians. Love them. Slight caraway seed flavour, great texture, filling.

What Bart said, I chew with the molars.

I completely agree with Viper, crackers are awesome used as scoops for the entrees, but that's almost impossible for many ration crackers. US mre crackers, British biscuits, French biscuits, etc, all fall apart quickly when used as a scoop. The eastern European hardtack crackers are also awesome used as croutons in soups, and rehydrated into amazing desserts. I've made a fine pseudo-tiramisu with Lithuanian biscuits, coffee powder, and vanilla drink mix. Yum.

I guess the point is, every style of cracker has it's uses. You have to approach ration components with an eye to their specific usefulness, and enjoy them in that context.

-Zed

That's exactly my point! Nothing in the ration I was eating was improved by being put on them, or them into the other items. <shrug>

Since I have 5 Lithuanian rations and around 5 or 6 Polish, I'll get more opportunities to "enjoy" them.

Rob