[RACH3L]

I'm curious to know everybody's opinion (from personal experience) on what brand of MREs is the best. Considering the quality, affordability, taste, portions? Does the food back up the companies claims? What brands do you truly trust your... well, life with, if you are in a "situation".
Thanks for the feed back!
EDIT: Maybe I'm using the wrong term. I'm thinking more on the lines of long term food storage, grab and go buckets... not necessarily military issued food.

 

[Smitty901]

Sense I have had a lot of experience with the standard issue MRE I have to go with that. Has what you need the food is good, some better some will do.
The flameless heater makes it taste even better when you can use it.
The reduce meals used in short training were ok but lacking after you burnt up a lot of energy

 

[BigCheeseStick]

Beef stew. Actually better than most frozen tv dinners by far!

Does anybody remember the exact name of the shredded chicken one NOBODY would eat? I remember whole pallets of them sitting untouched for months in Iraq because they were so disgusting everybody would pick them out from the others and throw them aside. I don't think a rat could choke one down without getting the runs.

 

[HuntingHawk]

"what brand of MREs is the best"

I never noticed the brand of an MRE. But sure it was marked somewhere.

 

[Smitty901]

MRE Menu ll
Vegetable Lasagna Vegetarian
Contains the following
Flameless heater,Vegtable Lasagana 8 oz,Pears 4.5 oz,Vanilla pound cake 2.5 0z, Wheat snack bread 2 oz,Peanut butter 1.5oz,
Chocolate hazelnut cocoa Beverage power 1.2oz dry. Two peaces gum, .56oz lemon flavored tea packet,
1/8 oz Bulliards pepper sauce,4 grams Iodized salt,small pack toilet paper , moist towelette and plastic spoon.
Meal contains everything you need If the flameless heater is used to heat the main course it taste pretty good . Often main course is eaten along with the fruit the rest is eaten of time. This is the basics of the meal each one is a little different and a much wider verity now than in the past.



Just finished it pretty darn good.

 

[RShultz210]

MRE Menu ll
Vegetable Lasagna Vegetarian
Contains the following
Flameless heater,Vegtable Lasagana 8 oz,Pears 4.5 oz,Vanilla pound cake 2.5 0z,Peanut butter 1.5oz,
Chocolate hazelnut cocoa Beverage power 1.2oz dry. Two peaces gum, .56oz lemon flavored tea packet,
1/8 oz Bulliards pepper sauce,4 grams Iodized salt,small pack toilet paper , moist towelette and plastic spoon.
Meal contains everything you need If the flameless heater is used to heat the main course it taste pretty good . Often main course is eaten along with the fruit the rest is eaten of time. This is the basic of the meal each one is a little different and a much wider verity now that in the past.

View attachment 2807 View attachment 2808

I guess MRE's are, for the most part, OK. There ARE one or two that, to be diplomatic, are "less than successful".
To be UN-diplomatic, there's couple not even a rat would eat. I think my two biggest objections are the dimensions,
and the weight. For a bug out bag, they are IMHO just too big and they weigh too much. But then again, my idea of how a bug out bag fits into survival in general is a little different than some other folks. To me, a bug out bag it is to get you to your main campsite that is near a source of easily purified water and where you have buried a cache tube
that contains a decent tent along with other supplies you will need until what ever has happened dies down or blows over. Ideally it should also be near an easily looted food source i.e. an out of the way grocery store, or other food shop.
For food in a bug out bag, IMO you should consider something like Datrex emergency rations and Mountain House freeze
dried food. If you carry enough water you can get away with at least 1 meal per day being a full meal freeze-dried, and
go on emergency rations the rest of the day. The Datrex rations are small and light, high calorie, and non-thirst provoking. All in all you can just carry more E-rations or Freeze-dried food in the same space that MRE's take up and
have just as many, if not more, calories, and you can carry a lot of other equipment that you should have like a very
large first-aid kit, Toilet paper, extra socks, and, most important of all the best handgun you can afford with the most
ammo for it you can carry.

 

[RShultz210]

MRE Menu ll
Vegetable Lasagna Vegetarian
Contains the following
Flameless heater,Vegtable Lasagana 8 oz,Pears 4.5 oz,Vanilla pound cake 2.5 0z,Peanut butter 1.5oz,
Chocolate hazelnut cocoa Beverage power 1.2oz dry. Two peaces gum, .56oz lemon flavored tea packet,
1/8 oz Bulliards pepper sauce,4 grams Iodized salt,small pack toilet paper , moist towelette and plastic spoon.
Meal contains everything you need If the flameless heater is used to heat the main course it taste pretty good . Often main course is eaten along with the fruit the rest is eaten of time. This is the basic of the meal each one is a little different and a much wider verity now that in the past.

View attachment 2807 View attachment 2808

I guess MRE's are, for the most part, OK. There ARE one or two that, to be diplomatic, are "less than successful". To be UN-diplomatic, there's couple not even a rat would eat. I think my two biggest objections are the dimensions,
and the weight. For a bug out bag, they are IMHO just too big and they weigh too much. But then again, my idea of how a bug out bag fits into survival in general is a little different than some other folks. To me, a bug out bag it is to get you to your main campsite that is near a source of easily purified water and where you have buried a cache tube
that contains a decent tent along with other supplies you will need until what ever has happened dies down or blows over. Ideally it should also be near an easily looted food source i.e. an out of the way grocery store, or other food shop.For food in a bug out bag, IMO you should consider something like Datrex emergency rations and Mountain House freeze dried food. If you carry enough water you can get away with at least 1 meal per day being a full meal freeze-dried, and go on emergency rations the rest of the day. The Datrex rations are small and light, high calorie, and non-thirst provoking. All in all you can just carry more E-rations or Freeze-dried food in the same space that MRE's take up and have just as many, if not more, calories, and you can carry a lot of other equipment that you should have like a very large first-aid kit, Toilet paper, extra socks, and, most important of all the best handgun you can afford with the most ammo for it you can carry.

 

[Smitty901]

Would it be the Chicken Chow Main(sp)?

There is only one kind of chicken that is meant for humans IMO that is Chicken no first name or second name added to it . Chicken plus anything else is not chicken. When I went down today to grab one I could have bet first one I reached in and grabbed was a chicken stew I threw it a long ways.
I will eat it if I have too I lived on the darn things for months a a time. After awhile you stop eating everything in them and don't eat 3 a day.
You can gain weight eating MRE's.

 

[Fuzzee]

I've had MRE's by various commercial makers and find the usgi's the best. There are some real shooty commercial MRE rip offs out there with expired heaters and low quality components. My favorite meal is Chili Mac, soooooooooo if we happen to be held out together some time in the future and digging into a box of MRE's, I may punch you for grabbing the Chili Mac before me. :mrgreen:

 

[BigCheeseStick]

Would it be the Chicken Chow Main(sp)?

I wanna say it had a fancier name than that. I remember it actually sounded good. After much complaining from higher ups (who didn't have to eat them!) that we were wasteful, they bulldozed a couple pallets of them under the sand to get rid of them!

 

[Smitty901]

Issue MRE's are not a long term answer to riding out what ever may come . We have enough stocked up to allow for a smooth transition to a self reliant life style weather it be week months or longer.
In the first few days you are going to be busy having easy to serve foods will take a heavy load off everyone's shoulders.
We look at things like weather disrupting everything We will be just fine unlike what we saw on the east coast. Or In the gulf.
It a storm really messed things up like here for a while we could easily feed and care for our group and still help out others.

The current MRE's I see are packaged in Evansville IN

 

[Montana Rancher]

seriously you should be past MRE's and looking for more long term storage

https://www.costco.com/30,144-Total-Servings-4-Person-1-Year-Food-Storage.product.11763436.html

Costco also sells 1 year versions of this but if you have a grain mill (who doesn't at this point) get that and live long and prosper

 

[Smitty901]

seriously you should be past MRE's and looking for more long term storage

https://www.costco.com/30,144-Total-Servings-4-Person-1-Year-Food-Storage.product.11763436.html

Costco also sells 1 year versions of this but if you have a grain mill (who doesn't at this point) get that and live long and prosper

Have plenty of long term. MRE's do have a place I lived off them enough times .

 

[Meangreen]

I'm eating MRE's right now and I think their all discusting. Lots and Lots of Tabasco sauce!

 

[Smitty901]

I'm eating MRE's right now and I think their all discusting. Lots and Lots of Tabasco sauce!

Meangreen the sold us out they dumped Tabasco for Bulliard's pepper sauce. One I had today for the heck of it was good.

 

[Meangreen]

Meangreen the sold us out they dumped Tabasco for Bulliard's pepper sauce. One I had today for the heck of it was good.

I bring my own bottle of tabasco. I use it on canned tuna, Vienna sausage, and top Raman. We have a pretty good variety of MRE's but no matter I think they all suck. We have an old microwave that helps but when you get over watch, it's gonna be cold and not just the food.

 

[BigCheeseStick]

If I'm carrying my own bottle... "Frank's" all the way!

Nectar of the Gods!
View attachment 2815

 

[BigCheeseStick]

I found out what the most disgusting MRE EVER was! Used to be called "Chicken Ala King", but I'm told so many were being thrown away they changed the name to "Chicken and Dumplings" to try and fool people.

Yes, this is the real thing!
View attachment 2816

I remember the ONE I watched a guy try to eat, and tasted for myself on a dare... I'd happily rather die.

Best way to make an enemy for life was to tell the new guys. "Yeah, that's the good one everybody likes! TRY IT!" Luckily I saw the piles and piles of them tossed aside and figured things out for myself before anybody pulled it on me.

 

[Fuzzee]

 

[Meangreen]

If I'm carrying my own bottle... "Frank's" all the way!

Nectar of the Gods!
View attachment 2815

I like the Tabasco because you get alotta bang for the buck. Little bottle goes a long way.