It's been a while since I decided to try an old MRE for dinner. I was actually hungry tonight and wanted to try something more adventurous for dinner, so I grabbed this!
Here are the contents of the MRE laid out on a tray.
Here are the contents of the accessory packet.
Here is the corned beef hash in its retort pouch.
This is the coffee/creamer/sugar, hot cocoa mix and orange beverage base mix prior to adding water.
And finally, here's the entire MRE fully prepared!
I heated up the corned beef hash for about 10 minutes by placing its retort pouch in boiling water. It actually smelled like corned beef when opening. I took a few small bites, the beef was chewy and the potatoes were soft. A few bites in, my tongue was starting to feel a little sour and numb. If I were starving and had absolutely nothing else to eat, I'd probably eat the entire thing. But I'm not in a good position to risk feeling ill.
Everything else, on the other hand, actually held up after 30 years! The oatmeal cookie bar tastes a tad bit like a dog treat but also has a sort of creamy, wheaty sweet flavor to it. It's actually really tasty! The freeze dried fruit mix is to die for. It's mildy crunchy/foamy and very sweet. The freeze dried cherries in it were a delight to chew on.
The orange mix tasted like a sweeter version of Tang, it was pretty tasty although I'd rather gave orange gatorade. The cocoa mix was perfectly creamy, sweet and chocolatey. The crackers were okay, but I wish they were more toasty like they were in the 1980s MREs. The grape jelly was still edible but tasted a bit fermented and not fresh at all.
All in all, it was worth trying!
