Canadian IMP Menu 3 Maccoroni with Cheese Sauce
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 12:10 pm
This past weekend netboy541 and I ventured out, along with my brother, to my family's cabin in the backwoods of Ohio. We procured a sampling of German EPA, Norwegian Drytech REAL meals, and Canadian IMPs thanks to Treesuit (you rock man!). This was our first venture outside of US produced rations.
This is a review of Canadian IMP, Menu 3 Macaroni with Cheese Sauce.
After opening the top of the bag:
Contents laid out:
Macaroni with Cheese Sauce retort pouch:
Peaches retort pouch:
The Macaroni was prepared by boiling in water for 8 minutes. While waiting on our meals to heat up we decided to sample some Canadian beverages:
For this review we sampled the wet packed Peaches, Macaroni with Cheese Sauce, Bread, Strawberry Jam, and Peanut Butter Kit Kat.
Closer view of Macaroni with Cheese Sauce:
Now on to the Review. First up the bread:
BREAD AND STRAWBERRY JAM
Portion: I found the portion size of the bread to be sufficent compared to the ammount of Macaroni with Cheese Sauce. However, there were also two packets of Strawberry Jam, and not enough bread to match up with the Jam packets.
Texture: The bread was not as moist as a fresh baked loaf obviously, but I found it quite comparable to a dinner roll in texture. It also had that mild dryness, and crumble of a dinner roll. When using it to wipe up the excess cheese sauce, it had a tendency to crumble.
The Strawberry Jam was quite moist, and gellatinous as Jam should be. There was some residual liquid.
Taste: The bread was quite good, albeit a bit bland. Very remniscent of sliced white bread in taste. It tended to pill a bit in the mouth. The addition of the Strawberry Jam though made it very good. Strawberry Jam was quite sweet on it's own. When smeared on the bread, the bread mellowed it out and made it enjoyable.
MACARONI WITH CHEESE SAUCE
Portion: Portion size was comparable to a US MRE.
Texture: I expected the Cheese Sauce to have a consistency of silky melted cheese. Instead it came out as more of a glob, even while piping hot. We kneaded the bag to help break up the contents, but they were still very thick and solid. The noodles were perfectly al dente though.
Taste: netboy541 thought the entree may have went bad on his first taste. I too found something offputting at first bite. Then I realized it was the sharpness of the cheese we were tasting. American Macaroni and Cheese tends to be a bit dulled, whereas this entree had a prevailent cheddar flavor. I found it overall to be an okay dish, just nothing that really stood out to me other than the sharpness of the cheese.
PEACHES
Portion: Quite a lot, certainly the heaviest component in the entire meal
Texture: Peaches were tender, and very juicy. In fact we had to pour off an excess amount of juice before distributing them on our plates.
Taste: I am not a big fresh fruit fan. These peaches were lightly sweet, and very fresh. I would highly recommend if you are a peach fan.
For dessert we had the Peanut Butter Kit Kat and Campino Hard Candy:
PEANUT BUTTER KIT KAT
Portion: This was a full size candy bar, and quite a treat to discover!
Texture: I was blown away by the consistency of the peanut butter. Unlike a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that has an oily texture to the peanut butter, the Kit Kat was stuffed with a crumbly peanut butter than reminded me of my Grandmother's peanut butter fudge. The chocolate was a semi firm milk chocolate, that broke easily when bit.
Taste: For me this was the highlight of the meal. I confess I am a Kit Kat fan, but I am an even bigger peanut butter fan. The sweet milk chococlate was a great mate to the rich, crumbly peanut butter. I give it a solid 10!
CAMPINO HARD CANDY
Portion: One round disk hard candy, of similar size to an after dinner peppermint.
Texture: Slick hard candy
Taste: Very very grape. Overbearing at first. Then there is a creaminess that mixes with it. Overall, a good hard candy.
In the end I found this to be a good meal, on par with many of the US MREs I have sampled. I don't know why, but overall both I and Netboy541agreed that it seemed the meal was not as complete as a US MRE. However, I found a very useful attribute of the packaging. Our neighbor, who lives about 1/4 mile away invited us over. The airtight aluminum lining of the bag made a great impromptu cooler. I filled it with three bottled beers, and some ice. It never leaked and kept my beers ice cold!
This is a review of Canadian IMP, Menu 3 Macaroni with Cheese Sauce.
BREAD AND STRAWBERRY JAM
Portion: I found the portion size of the bread to be sufficent compared to the ammount of Macaroni with Cheese Sauce. However, there were also two packets of Strawberry Jam, and not enough bread to match up with the Jam packets.
Texture: The bread was not as moist as a fresh baked loaf obviously, but I found it quite comparable to a dinner roll in texture. It also had that mild dryness, and crumble of a dinner roll. When using it to wipe up the excess cheese sauce, it had a tendency to crumble.
The Strawberry Jam was quite moist, and gellatinous as Jam should be. There was some residual liquid.
Taste: The bread was quite good, albeit a bit bland. Very remniscent of sliced white bread in taste. It tended to pill a bit in the mouth. The addition of the Strawberry Jam though made it very good. Strawberry Jam was quite sweet on it's own. When smeared on the bread, the bread mellowed it out and made it enjoyable.
MACARONI WITH CHEESE SAUCE
Portion: Portion size was comparable to a US MRE.
Texture: I expected the Cheese Sauce to have a consistency of silky melted cheese. Instead it came out as more of a glob, even while piping hot. We kneaded the bag to help break up the contents, but they were still very thick and solid. The noodles were perfectly al dente though.
Taste: netboy541 thought the entree may have went bad on his first taste. I too found something offputting at first bite. Then I realized it was the sharpness of the cheese we were tasting. American Macaroni and Cheese tends to be a bit dulled, whereas this entree had a prevailent cheddar flavor. I found it overall to be an okay dish, just nothing that really stood out to me other than the sharpness of the cheese.
PEACHES
Portion: Quite a lot, certainly the heaviest component in the entire meal
Texture: Peaches were tender, and very juicy. In fact we had to pour off an excess amount of juice before distributing them on our plates.
Taste: I am not a big fresh fruit fan. These peaches were lightly sweet, and very fresh. I would highly recommend if you are a peach fan.
For dessert we had the Peanut Butter Kit Kat and Campino Hard Candy:
Portion: This was a full size candy bar, and quite a treat to discover!
Texture: I was blown away by the consistency of the peanut butter. Unlike a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that has an oily texture to the peanut butter, the Kit Kat was stuffed with a crumbly peanut butter than reminded me of my Grandmother's peanut butter fudge. The chocolate was a semi firm milk chocolate, that broke easily when bit.
Taste: For me this was the highlight of the meal. I confess I am a Kit Kat fan, but I am an even bigger peanut butter fan. The sweet milk chococlate was a great mate to the rich, crumbly peanut butter. I give it a solid 10!
CAMPINO HARD CANDY
Portion: One round disk hard candy, of similar size to an after dinner peppermint.
Texture: Slick hard candy
Taste: Very very grape. Overbearing at first. Then there is a creaminess that mixes with it. Overall, a good hard candy.
In the end I found this to be a good meal, on par with many of the US MREs I have sampled. I don't know why, but overall both I and Netboy541agreed that it seemed the meal was not as complete as a US MRE. However, I found a very useful attribute of the packaging. Our neighbor, who lives about 1/4 mile away invited us over. The airtight aluminum lining of the bag made a great impromptu cooler. I filled it with three bottled beers, and some ice. It never leaked and kept my beers ice cold!
