YouTube has several channels where people munch on things that you’d never imagine wanting to eat. The military rations are, often, quite interesting. I remember seeing Russian rations and, boy, I’m not making an excuse for committing war crimes but I’d be pretty cranky if I had to eat the crap that Ivan was having to choke down.
The US doesn’t have the best rations, but its far from the worst. The Canadians, amusingly, appear to be mostly single-serving stuff you can find in a WalMart and thrown together in a heat-sealed baggie.
I have a few cases of military rations laying about, but theyre for a very particular type of emergency. For most emergencies, whatever is in the cupboards will work just fine, and then there’s the freeze drieds and bulk stuff for when things get really weird. The MRE’s are mostly for that “We are going portable NOW” moment.
Fascinating reading viewing though. And some of these countries, like Japan for example, put some pretty awesome tech into their dining experiences.
I remember eating crackers, cheese spread, and grape jelly out of some WWII K rats in the late 1960’s that were quite good. I enjoyed it so much that I still eat crackers, cheese, and grape jelly as a midnight snack now, (although it’s definitely not the K rat version).
I really liked the spaghetti and meatballs in those C rations. Add the cheese from the crackers. Great. Pork and beans in tomato sauce were pretty good to.
Just stay away from the ham and lima beans.
The scrambled eggs were actually edible if you could heat them.
The oldest one I’ve ever seen anyone eat was IIRC from the Crimean War, that was Steve1989 on Youtube.
Oldest I’ve had as some C rations from the Korean War and that was back in the late 80’s. The stew was about the same as Dinty Moore but the can of chocolate chip cake was pretty good. The cigs were super dry and burnt up pretty much instantly.
Pork slices, ham slices, turkey loaf, beef and shrapnel (potatoes), beans and franks, spaghetti, scrambled eggs and ham, Ham and Lima beans. How many of us old guys saved that pound cake until we got a can of peaches to go with it? Save that fruit cake for when you miss resupply, it truly was better than nothing.
My dad never liked the cans of cheese and peanut butter and gave them to us. The canned peanut butter was lots better than the peanut butter in the small bag in MREs which ate very dry.
There was an Air Force emergency ration that came in a can. It had a Cornflakes bar, A Chicken flavored bar (tasted like a chicken in basket cracker), A potato and cheese flavored bar, and a chocolate fudge bar, along with chicken bouillon and instant coffee. It was pretty nasty save for the cornflakes bar.
Not too surprisingly, the French rations are quite good. I had one that was ‘duck parmentier’ (a duck confit, shepherds pie sort of thing). The sides were OK too. I never saw the rumored condensed wine ration.
The Brit rations are interesting: We used to trade for them, mainly for the giant Cadbury chocolate bar in them.
Any word about the c4 strip for the heater or blow your foot off if you tried to stomp on it?
Never heard about that real c4 you can use a piece to heat water etc but you can smack it as hard as possible with a hammer shoot it etc it will not go off unless it has a blasting cap or some sort of detonator in it then well you get the idea !
Nice hiss.
1943-46 Dated C-Rat Boxes were available at a local Surplus Store into the early 1970’s, and weren’t that bad, in general, if you were Hiking all Day, or not even That Hungry. Very few Cans were ‘bulged’ and immediately Rejected, Canned Fruits were packed with so much Sugar that although ‘stale’, were Edible. Crackers and Desert Cakes were always Good.
One thing about the older Canned Goods (not just Military) was that the Cans were of much Heavier Steel, and not lined with Toxic Plastic. That, and the generally Higher Quality of all Food back then, gave them Longevity that current Canned Goods don’t have. Most of my Reserve Food for the Zombie Apocalypse has been Canned Stuff, Soup, Stew, Fruits and Vegetables, but I’ve found that after about 5 Years, the Cans begin to Leak; maybe 1 in 30 go Bad.