Self Heating cans reference

[rationtin440]

Since I was not sure if it was appropriate to put this in the self-heating cans posts on the mre topics, I'll put it here. I first heard, actually read, about self heating food cans in the Sci-Fi book series "Deathlands." In this post apocalyptic, a small group of survivors traveled around America using top secret matter-transmitter gateways built by the government----and to ward off starvation, they used-----taadaa! "self heating" food cans. These were an interesting concept in which the can was activated by pressing a button in the lid which caused a chemical reaction inside the double layered walls of the can itself, and heated the contents. Now that would be really useful to carry! Anyone's thoughts?

[Ruleryak]

Well the Deathlands book was first published in 85 so I think the WW2 era self heating cans beat them to the idea. The company Hot-Can makes coffees, hot cocoa, and a few types of soup with chemically heated cans. The current style has a button on the bottom of the can if I understand correctly. When you press on the correct area it punctures a water packet inside starting the reaction in pretty much the same way as an mre heater. There was a previous version that had a piercing key you'd use to puncture the separate chambers of the double-walled space, releasing water to mix with the chemical.

[cavguy]

I was given multiple cases of those self heating cans while I was deployed, they were pretty good! The cans were big though and contained stew or chili and something with pasta if I remember right, what sucked was that so much space was taken by the heating element and water that the amount of food was-for me-negligible at best. You used a small metal "pick" bent at a 90 degree angle to puncture something that contained water that was built around the cans which started the heating process. There were like 4 small holes around the lid that you could put the metal "pick" through. I think they were made by a company called sun meadow or something like that.

[rationtin440]

Thanks for replies guys! When I first read about the characters using those "self-heats" I thought it was a pretty cool concept, and at the time I read the first novels, my knowledge of ration technology could almost fill the red top of an MRE tabasco sauce. But the vague similarities between the fictional self-heats and the real stuff are pretty interesting, although I'm not sure how long the shelf life is on the real thing whereas the characters were able to eat 100 year old self-heats with nearly no ill effects. (I think that's called "artistic license" in the writer's genre, lol!)

[Ruleryak]

As far as SciFi self-heating food goes, I was always a fan of the self heating instantly-ready cup-noodle in the animated series Cowboy Bebop. Cutsman started a thread about the Xmas dinner in a can in December and I tracked down a gif of the soup being readied for consumption in the show:

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