2004 minestrone MRE & Yugo cook set review

[Norton]

We had a large Northeastern rain front blow in Virginia this weekend. So I felt the Appalachian Train would be empty and mountains misty.
Packed up a 2004 Minestrone side dish I had been saving for either winter camping or canoe trip. Also took older Taster's Choice MRE coffee/cream & sugar.
Brown foil crackers (1989?) and 2004 Peanut butter pouch and a modern MRE energy bar. For this trip I wanted to use a compact system, so I chose the Yugoslavian/Serbian square pot set and German Esbit stove. Plus U.S. Army stainless steel canteen cup and stove to make coffee.(The Yugo's cup is to small)
I thought this Minestrone would be perfect for the wet weather after a 3 mile hike up the side of the 1,454 ft mountain.

Well I was wrong.. I like Minestrone soup and was expecting a similar flavor at least. The Department of Defense decided on a different recipe I suppose.
As it was raining I set the pot set and Esbit under a rock out cropping and and started boiling. Then set the U.S. Canteen stove and started the coffee.
I used made in Germany Red Box fuel tabs. My canteen cup boiled the coffee water with two tabs and it took three for the Yugo set. I guess it was the wet weather and Aluminum thickness of the Yugo set.

I open the Minestrone and thought it smelled like commercial Tomato paste right out of a can. (Not bad) Also smelled some garlic as well. The texture was very thick and gooey. I took a bite and thought the base flavor tasted like spaghetti/ sauce. The red beans were mushy and had almost no taste. The macaroni had a paste like texture. It was sort of a Chili dish mixed with Marconi and vegetable soup Ate about half and thought on a scale of 1 to 10 it rated 3. One of the least appetizing flavor and texture. It was way to thick
I had to add some boiling water to make it more soup like. If you added about 1/2 cup of boiling water, salt and Tabasco it was passable as soup.
Only ate about half.
The crackers tasted fine but were smashed in in transport so the could not use the peanut butter.

The coffee tasted smelled and tasted slightly nutty, but had a excellent flavor. The cup took awhile to cool but it retained the heat of the liquid.
This was a welcome treat in the cold rain and very nostalgic. It gave me something to look forward to on the way up. It seemed to have better flavor but less aroma than the Coffee type II. The cream seemed to have held up fine as I saw no oily residue floating on the surface.
The First Strike bar was outstanding. It had a good apple flavor and did give me energy to Hike three more miles.

This is one of the best MRE items I have eaten on the a hike. I suppose it would be a stand alone breakfast substitute with a cup of coffee or tea.
It would hold you over in a pinch

[Woodland]

I like reviews like this.There are pics of the landscape too.They make the review more interesting.
While watching the pics I noticed how you put the cup onto the stove...I will digress a little bit from the rations topic.
I saw videos on youtube (or read about it somewhere? ) about the GI stove and cup combo.The videos offered a solution for two problems.The first problem with the stove and cup is this:

They stick together.

The second problem is that the flames of the fuel tablet or bar can only heat the bottom of the cup if there is no gap between the stove and the cup.Flames come out trough the holes of the stove and don't touch the cup.The first option is to place the cup the other way round on the stove.Like this:




The modification I made is this:

You can also bore holes instead of cutting or carving slots (are they slots? I'm not a native English speaker...) The depth of the slots(?) is important.
I bent two pieces of steel wire like this:

The result:

I tried it and it works very well.

Sorry about beeing off topic

[housil]

We had a large Northeastern rain front blow in Virginia this weekend. So I felt the Appalachian Train would be empty and mountains misty.

When we were in the Smoky Mountains last year, we also walked a couple of steps on the Appalachian trail

Just 37F in the morning...

Well I was wrong.. I like Minestrone soup and was expecting a similar flavor at least. The Department of Defense decided on a different recipe I suppose.

I agree. Italy is just a quick drive far and I had real "Minestrone" before but was disappointed when I had my first MRE Minestrone one and I avoid it still today.

I used made in Germany Red Box fuel tabs. My canteen cup boiled the coffee water with two tabs and it took three for the Yugo set. I guess it was the wet weather and Aluminum thickness of the Yugo set.

Which one? Did you know we have two different sizes of ESBIT?

esbit.jpg (28.01 KiB) Viewed 5051 times

The smaller, civilian one (left) and the bigger, military one (right)

[housil]

I like reviews like this.There are pics of the landscape too.They make the review more interesting.

Same over here and I like your idea of the improvement too.

[parafireboy]

Nice review Norton. Woodland, I'm going to have to try your improvement ideas for the canteen cup & stove. I use the GI canteen cup and stand / stove pretty frequently, so I look forward to trying your idea.