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Hi guys,

today I want to show a MCI from January 1961: HAM AND LIMA BEANS

All contents were in perfect condition, no bulging or leaking, no corrosion !

Here are some photos:

The MCI cardbox (the stains on the left side I guess is from another ration, because here no can was leaking) and the contents:












All contents and one glance:


HAM AND LIMA BEANS IN JUICES (stamped EST.945 2421) 24. February 1961???:


B-2 UNIT CRACKERS CHEESE SPREAD (stamped 1-61):



DATE PUDDING (stamped on side of can 18.1.1) 18. January 1961???:


ACCESSORY PACKET (COFFEE-INSTANT, CREAM-DRY, SUGAR, CIGARETTES, MATCHES, CHEWING GUM, TOILET PAPER, SALT):


White PLASTIC SPOON in wrapper (no marking existent except for a little “3”):


CARDBOARD DEVIDER, old pattern:


HAM AND LIMA BEANS IN JUICES after opening with the “abrasive paper method”:


Good smell and appearance , the ham looks really good (no taste test by a 48 year old ration, but I guess it still would be edible)







The empty HAM AND LIMA BEANS can, no corrosion, perfect !!!


The perfect condition of that 48 year old ration is a little miracle !

So long mreheater72

WOW !!

Impressive

Impressive...
As I said in an earlier post ,a friend of mine who is in the USMC told me that those MCI's and other c rations can last indefinitely under proper conditions.
Probably those lima beans and ham were edible,in case of an emergency...
Peace!

Sorry - I didn't want to interrupt this thread but I had to say something.
True you guys proved over and over that MRE's in the retort pouch last a long time - longer
than the recommended dates. And the MCI's cans last even longer. But nothing lasts forever - nothing.

Indefinitely does not mean sensibility.

The only thing that can last 50, 100, and its been proven 1000 and longer are salt and spices.
But that's an exception. Truth is you'll never come across spices that old and will even have to worry about it
anyway.

That survivalist Marine has some ideas about the SHTF and he's going to survive. And if he comes across
those 50 year old MCI's he's good to go; assuming they are all good. Not likely.

Survival is cooperation not individuality. Lived through a few natural and man made disasters already.
Those people who lended a helping hand saved the day.

MREheater72,


Wow! That was impressive, any chance we could get a look at the date pudding? I've never heard or seen such a food entree' before, especially in a C-rat/MCI. Any chance we could get a look athe contents?

jfko6 wrote:The only thing that can last 50, 100, and its been proven 1000 and longer are salt and spices.
But that's an exception. Truth is you'll never come across spices that old and will even have to worry about it
anyway.

Oddly enough, before I started collecting MREs in earnest, I was collecting old food in general. When I really got more into MREs I stopped with everything else, but I still have my old collection. Quaker oats from the late 1800s, Blue Diamond Almonds from 1902 and all sorts of other random old bits and pieces. Among those are several spices from the turn of the century 1900 and I have to admit that I did try several and they were just fine. Curry powder, black pepper, mustard powder and a few others if I recall. So if SHTF some day in the US and I turn to my collection for last-resort food I can use 110+ year old spices to go along with my MCIs

I strongly suspect that the reason this particular ration pack remains untouched is because the Ham and limas were the single most hated ration back then. Nobody would eat it after trying it once. The popular name for it was "ham and motherf....s" and most troops would rather have eaten the can than what was in it.

Been there, ate that. To the best of my recall from 1971 (which may not be perfect because we tend to forget painful things) it was oppressively salty and gluey, but tasteless. I ate it because I truly love ham and limas - but my desire to have that dish was lessened considerably after this ordeal. And I only had it that once.

Thank you for your service to our nation RockyRaab! I just realized, looking over the postings in this topic, that my memory seems to be suffering as well; there is no way I could have eaten the ham w/lima beans MCI during my military service because we were issued 1980 lot MCIs and from what I've seen, the ham and lima beans were no longer included in the 1978 menus! Not that I would have eaten them anyway. My uncle served in a Nike-Hercules missile unit during the 1960s and a running joke in his unit was that if they ever shot down a Russian bomber and the crew survived to be captured, they would not feed them the ham and lima beans MCI since it would violate the Geneva Convention!

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but one thing I've heard and read time and again about the dangers associated with eating MCIs from the '60s and '70s was that, among other hazards, the contents of the cans had a nasty tendancy to react with the metal inside the can itself, and the more acidic the contents (anything with sauce, especially tomato) the more nasty the concoction. Just one of the many hazards of them.