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Evaluation and Taste Test of MREs
by Tom Faller
from the misc.survival newsgroup
As promised, I've written up some of my evaluations of MRE entrees
and accessories. These are very subjective - I'm sure Julia Child
would have just starved, but in general, I don't think you'd do
too badly using MREs for emergency food backup. Several manuals
I've seen suggest that children and the elderly will stop eating
if they are required to survive off of unfamiliar food, so these
are a possible alternative to straight wheat, salt sugar, powdered
milk in nitrogen-packed #10 cans.. ;-)
MREs: To Feed or Not to Feed?
A prime concern of anyone fending for himself is a steady supply
of nutritious food. Although the body can go without food far
longer than it can without air or water, lack of food can cause
weakness, confusion and fainting. At the very least, the noise
of an empty belly will be distracting and may scare off game.
Preserving food for carry has a long and dismal history. The desire
for fresh-tasting food can at times be overwhelming, as shown
by the examples of the Donner party and occasional stranded rugby
teams. Given the choice of carrying around heavy canned food or
taking a mortgage out to buy freeze-dried, the typical camper
chose to subsist on Triscuits and M&Ms, and tuck an extra ten
dollars in his boot for a stop at McDonalds on the way home.
The genius of the military provides another alternative: the Meal,
Ready to Eat, or MRE. (Just another example of the military's
insatiable appetite for TLA's, or Three-Letter Acronyms). The
MRE is a full meal, already cooked, that just wants warming up.
It is packaged in airtight foil and plastic bags, which are lighter
than cans and only twice as bulky as bricks.
The full MRE is a package about a foot long, six inches wide and
two inches thick. Wrapped in brown plastic and sealed at the ends,
it looks like a giant candy bar. Inside the initial bag are several
flat cardboard packages containing more brown pouches and, well,
more brown pouches. Sorting this out is usually easy, in broad
daylight, in good lighting. Each brown package has black lettering
on it somewhere, indicating the contents. This is to keep you
from boiling the package of crackers or opening the stew in your
lap.
The cardboard packages have the contents printed on the outside,
and these are usually the main courses, so it is wise to set them
aside. Each MRE has a meat pouch, or a meat and starch pouch,
kind of like a stew, or casserole, or leftovers. There is a side
dish, like more starch or fruit, a bread and spread, a dessert,
and a separate package with accessories. A spoon or fork is packed
in the main pouch. Each meal includes a pouch with powdered beverage,
like fruit drink or cocoa.
The accessory pouch contents are pretty standard, even across
meal types. Packages of salt, pepper, sugar, instant coffee, creamer,
and a moistened washing towel accompany toilet tissue, chewing
gum, special matches, and sometimes candy or other accessories.
MREs are made by contractors, following government specs, so contents
can vary slightly, but quality has to stay high. You may see variations
in origin and recipes, but the meals will be familiar from menu
to menu.
I bought a range of MREs for taste testing from three different
sources: a survivalist outlet, an army surplus store, and at a
gun show. In each case, the range of menus offered was different,
and the packaging varied. Most of the time, you will see MREs
offered only as complete packages, either singly or as cases of
12 or 30 meals. Outlets can supply the individual components,
offering the opportunity to buy the components you need and not
get stuck with leftovers. Some outlets offer discounts on "emergency
packs", made mostly of main courses and entrees. This is a good
way to get the main meal components for packing along on day trips
or to stock for emergencies.
In evaluating the MREs, I kept things simple. I heated the main
pouches in hot water, to test how well the bag's seal leaked,
and to see if heating imparted a chemical or plastic taste to
the food. In all cases, the pouches did not leak, nor did they
add a taste to the food. I varied the meals, at times just using
one package, at times using several, or even mixing them together.
For tasting purposes, I'll report each one separately. The military,
endlessly inventive, and with 19-year-old stomachs, mix together
the damnedest combinations of packages in order to force some
variety into their diet. I kept this to a minimum.
A couple of points to go into before I start. I was surprised;
the food was generally palatable and fresh-tasting. In some cases,
it was good, and I could look forward to some of these meals.
In other cases, it was at least better than some hospital food
I've had, although not quite up to airline food. Tabasco sauce
is fiendishly included in some of the meals, in a cute little
small bottle. There is just enough for flavor, and not enough
to hurt yourself with. Living just on the edge of Cajun country,
I know that overdosing on pepper sauce can be fun, but you pay
for it later. In several cases, even without the sauce, the meals
caused indigestion (which I rarely get these days otherwise),
but nothing serious, and I did not get any evidence of unhealthy
food - it was probably due to the levels of dextrose and salt
in some of the meals.
This is not health food. It will keep you alive, and keep you
going under heavy exertion. A full day's ration should give you
4000 calories, well over the diet of most adults not running around
in a battle zone. There's a lot of salt and fat in some meals
- again, not a problem if you're active, but if you're using these
as rations, look for supplements and go easy on the spreads and
desserts. I've listed some of the nutritional information below.
The meals include almost no vegetables. There are tomato sauces,
and some small pieces of veggies, but you won't find broccoli
or a salad. Fruits are also at a minimum. Most calories are from
protein, starches and fats, generally in that order. Sauces may
have extra dextrose for flavor as well as for energy. This makes
them very useful for survival use, as a compact source of energy,
but you will have to supplement your diet over the long run.
There are tables published which give most of the nutritive values
of each meal, broken out by package. Some outlet's catalogs will
have tables. Generally, they only cover the meals that supplier
can get, so I've listed some of the details in a table below,
but some columns are blank where no info was available.
Entrees
Escalloped Potatoes and Ham - Ham and potato cubes, about 1/4" across in a creamy sauce.
The picture looked like hash, but it's more like a well-stocked
soup. The ham is the same quality as all the ham used in these
meals - good and lean, not Spam-like, not chewy, but with a ham
texture. I didn't find any gristle. The potatoes are soft, but
not overcooked. The broth is like potato soup, a little salty,
but good. It could use a little pepper. There's enough gravy to
serve as a basis for stew.
Cooked Ham Slice (smoke flavoring added) - This was a solid block of shaped (not
chopped) ham, about the size of a tin of sardines. It is packed
in water-based juice, but not sloppy. It has a good, slightly
smoky flavor and good texture, like a slow-baked smoked ham. I
found no big pockets or veins of fat or gristle. This isn't Spam,
it's a shaped ham steak.
Tuna Noodle Casserole - Tuna with flat noodles, green peas, small amounts of mushroom
and celery. As with some of the other casserole meals, the first
two ingredients are the main constituents and the rest just add
a little color or flavor. The tuna taste was good, and the noodles
and sauce were filling. A lesser onion taste was present. Other
ingredients (listed on box) kind of vanished into the sauce.
Pork with Rice in BBQ Sauce - Mostly pork and thick, sweet tomato paste with rice. The pork
is in small chunks (it isn't the ham), and has good taste and
texture. The sauce is close to the texture of sauce in canned
spaghetti, but it has some barbecue flavor. The overall taste
is meaty. After the initial tasting, I added a can of pineapple
rings to mine - a great lunch!
Omelet With Ham - this is the infamous dish that gave MREs a bad name in the
Gulf War. As I heard the story later, though, the problem was
that we were feeding our Arab allies the same MREs as our troops.
Oops - they won't eat the ham dishes. So one bunch of brave soldiers
sorted out all their beef and chicken entrees and got a monotonous
diet in return, with the Omelet being served several times a day.
The Omelet is actually pretty good, although blander than the
rest. The package includes Tabasco sauce, which helps it greatly.
The color is pale yellow/orange, and the texture is like pressed
scrambled eggs, (which is what it mostly is, natch..). Lots of
small chunks of ham are sprinkled evenly throughout, and although
it wouldn't make the grade at IHOP, it has a meaty taste, and
the ham is the same good quality as in the other dishes.
Corned Beef Hash - Ground corned beef with small potato chunks in broth, accompanied
by small flecks of green pepper, onion, and other veggies. Taste
and texture were kind of bland. Pepper helped, but this isn't
one of the more exciting meals.
Beef Frankfurters - Four all-beef franks, each about three inches long. They're
real hot dogs, boiled in the bag. Up country, you'd have to forego
both charcoal and a bun, but they taste just fine, just like the
ones in the grocery store. These would be good for campfires.
Side Dishes
Applesauce - Thick and fine grained, with an average apple taste. Not oversweetened
or citrus enhanced, but it could use some cinnamon.
Potatoes Au Gratin - Quarter inch cubes of potato in a bland cheddar cheese sauce.
The sauce was more yellow than cheesy - like most commercial cheese
sauces and soups. This was greatly improved with pepper or pepper
sauce. It seems kind of light as a side dish, though.
Corn Chowder - Looked more like bean casserole. Small, dark peas/beans with
some corn and tomato in a sweet, slightly smoky sauce. The peas
were firm, but not crunchy. The sauce was sticky, and had a slightly
peppery taste. Note: this may not be a regular MRE. The cardboard
package had a US flag emblem and HDR printed in block letters.
A title explained: Humanitarian Daily Ration - A Gift from the
People of the United States of America., along with a graphic
of someone eating the contents of the pouch with a spoon. Our
tax dollars at work, presumably.
Breads and Spreads
Crackers - also known as "biscuits" abroad, these are two flat crackers,
about 4" square. They are dimpled, but they don't easily break
into smaller sections. They're flat-tasting, with just a hint
of chemical taste that's probably from the freshness extender.
Still, they've got a good "wheat" background taste. They're stiff,
rather than crisp, which helps them hold up to spreading better.
They aren't very salty, which accounts for the slightly flat taste.
I've crammed these in a bike bag and found them mostly intact
hours later.
Peanut Butter - Typical smooth peanut butter. A little dry, meaning it isn't
over oily, and the oils didn't separate out. Goes well on crackers,
or you could try Thai cooking with it...
Jelly - Grape. What more needs to be said?
Cheese Spread - Pale yellow, it's more like Cheeze Wiz than cheddar, but think
of it as cooking ingredient rather than an hors d'ourve spread.
Desserts
Chocolate Granola Bar - Like a chocolate-covered brownie, with rich chocolate taste.
Very sweet, small nut pieces. Much like the commercial breakfast
bars.
Cherry Nut Cake - Orange-tan flat "glob" of cherry and nut-flavored pastry. It's
kind of dense, like a squashed cake or a brownie. The taste is
like a cherry Danish. Sweet and fruity tasting, there are lots
of nut pieces. It isn't spongy or crumbly, but pieces break off
easily.
Maple Nut Cake - Strong maple aroma (no, there aren't bits of maple wood included).
Plenty of various nut pieces. Texture and consistency similar
to cherry nut cake.
Fruit Bar - Freeze-dried fruit cocktail bar that's dry and crunchy like
styrofoam, and leaves a sticky edge to your mouth. It's like other
freeze-dried foods like the "astronaut ice cream" from a couple
of years back. It's light orange-pink in color with dried fruit
suspended in a sugary matrix. Tastes good, but you have to wash
it down with some water, it's so sweet.
Oatmeal Cookie - A tan, 2 1/2"x1"x1/2" brick, dry but easily chewed. It's sweet,
but not as chewy as an oatmeal cookie. The texture is very fine
grained.
There are plenty of desserts and a couple of entrees I haven't
tried yet. I'll try to add more reviews as I get to things, but
these are made as production runs, so suppliers can run out of
certain meals. I haven't tried any of the chicken or beef entrees
yet, but I've got more here to work through and I've seen more
around.
Basic Nutrition per US Army labs*
| Entree |
Calories |
Protein gm. |
Fat gm. |
Sodium mg. |
| Beef Stew |
267 |
30 |
10 |
1040 |
| Corned Beef Hash |
330 |
30 |
13 |
870 |
| Meatballs & Rice |
376 |
33 |
15 |
1400 |
| Spaghetti & Meat |
241 |
23 |
7 |
1100 |
| Tuna & Noodles |
255 |
26 |
9 |
600 |
| Omelet & Ham |
221 |
23 |
13 |
940 |
| Escalloped Potatoes |
234 |
24 |
8 |
1200 |
| Ham Slice |
153 |
26 |
5 |
1360 |
| BBQ Pork & Rice |
443 |
32 |
25 |
830 |
| Chicken a la King |
281 |
30 |
14 |
970 |
| Chicken & Rice |
290 |
31 |
11 |
1040 |
| Chicken Stew |
250 |
19 |
10 |
635 |
*This is not a vendor's guarantee.
NOTES:
- Desserts varied widely in calorie content and fat content. Use
desserts as energy food. An average person, planning MREs to get
him through a house-bound emergency, should watch fat and salt
intake, and supplement MREs with canned or dried vegetables and
fruits.
- Well, I hope this saves someone a lot of effort and taste-testing,
and maybe will get somebody else, who bought MREs as a "good idea"
but has never had the guts to try one to break down and use them.
I can re-post this privately on request, and would appreciate
comments and advice.
- The cheese and peanut butter used to be better than store bought.
MREs taste much better hot. The fruit-nut cake goes well with
water added to the dried fruit. Many of the entrees are also improved
by adding hot water.
- The stews and similar entrees have *very* thick "gravy", and when
hot water is added (tear off at the top notch, open, and add water
to fill) they make a very tasty soup -- not watered down at all,
and more tasty and filling.
Last edited: November 15, 1996
Tom Faller
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