The whole video was amazing I was really curious about MREs my husband used to tell me about them and I always wondered what they were like so thank you for the awesome content 💜
I love you man but it's cringe when you don't eat something that's obviously meant to be heated like the beans. Sorry if it's no fun to do research but really. Also, what is the music?
@@nichevo1 I appreciate the feedback. In an effort to not burn my house down and eat it like soldiers in the field might I have chosen to eat everything cold. After 18 years of consuming MREs I can honestly say its pretty rare that I took the time to heat things up.
And if youre making a brew anyway, why not put your food in to heat up while you're at it. Water heats up ration pack, when done, it goes into your mug on the treabag.
Because while they are already fully cooked and they might be better when heated you're not always going to have that option to do so when out in the field, so a lot of reviewers eat them cold for this experience.
@@LawfullSpookI was in the RAuxAF. Not only did we take a burko for heating our rat packs and obviously our coffee. But, we took a TV for important events like Rugby internationals.
@@jackpowell9276 Because coffee houses were banned due to free thought, and we got pub culture and alcohol promotion to replace them and subdue the population xD
"I guess it's a British thing" - as a Brit, happy to say it is. We eat baked beans in tomato sauce on toast,with breakfast,with dinner.....you name it, we eat it with beans
Toast the bread, bit of marmite, slap on some cheese slices, add beans with garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce. Smash it down! Brilliant little meal.
@@BobbysGunChannelNot for me. Im an Aussie of Irish/Welsh parents and I love some HP sauce with my beans on toast so much I had a bottle delivered each month when I was in Iraq, couldn't get it sent through in Afghanistan though. Toasted cheese, toasted baked beans, toasted backed beans and cheese sandwiches I do enjoy but are molten hot out of the press.
As Mother used to say "It's the most imporant meal of the day!" It aways tastes better warm, but I'd gobble it up stone cold if I had too!! Warm is sooooo much better though!!! And yes, MRE's do look like cat food but at least we don't have to eat paste out of a tube like the first Astronauts had to!!! Slava Ukraini!
I love how similar the Brits are to Americans when it comes to MREs, like: "Eat it or die, you aren't special." Meanwhile the French MREs come with candles and a tablecloth.
@@Ducati121 When ever we came across the brits we would swap our french rations for theirs, because we prefer theirs to our ones. Brit rations from early 1990s came in a 📦 box, loved the pineapple in syrup 😋
Yep, you get one cooker per day but normally use a jet boil to cook with...and yes, we cook our food unless we're on hard routine - it tastes far better when hot. Oatmeal blocks can be made into porridge with sugar, creamer and hot water. Great vid though
The bird food sesame seed bar is my favorite thing on earth. It should taste like a light honey peanut brittle but its seasme seeds instead of peanuts. Seasme seeds are REALLY good for you!!! Its a middle eastern treat. I Loooooooove them
Dude the seasame bars are one of the single worst things to grace our MRE's. Everyone uses them as cement for defence building or gifts them to this weird Lieutenant we have that loves them. I was gutted when working with American Troops and they were pulling M&Ms out of their rucks and I had apricot jam and an oatmeal block 🤣
Oatmeal Blocks have been in British Rat Packs at least since the 1980's and packed exactly the same - eat them as they are or dissolve with water and milk power to make a porridge. The matches used to be called "Bengal Matches" and have a much larger phosphorus head than normal to make them much more wind resistent
I loved them. Really useful. Can eat on own or mix with hot chocolate & other things like jam & fruit to make an 'All-In porridge' in a hurry. Here you could use the jam, sesame bar etc
Those are not Bengal Matches, Bengal Matches are a novelty for kids to play with that light up green or purple, we always used to get them at bonfire night along with the sparklers.
I loved them when my dad bought ratpacks home. Apparently I wasn't supposed to eat a couple a day as snacks since they're supposed to be made into a whole bowl of porridge or something? Idk, I just ate them
If you want a real treat try the Australian 24 hour Ration, possibly the best ever made. The bag is a "poop bag", We leave NOTHING for the enemy to find.. I'm serious, it really is.
Tyler, since you only just discovered the joy of the orange/chocolate combination, let me recommend a Terry's Chocolate Orange which is also British. They're common around holidays now in the US. It's an orange sized ball of chocolate that you hit on a hard surface to break apart into slices. Enjoy!
The average British Squaddie often carried a bottle of Tobasco sauce to liven up the food. I'm old school so favourite was a can of chicken curry with boil in a bag rice. Cooked on a Hexamine stove. 😊
I have an old British field manual and on the page for the old rat packs it suggest carrying hot sauce, and spices to add variety to the meal because while you're suppose to get a different menu each day you often end up with the same one for weeks on end
Legend has it that a sesame seed bar once stopped an APFSDS round from a T90. The soldier walked away with a bit of bruising. Apparently it was still edible afterwards.
The fruit juices are called “ Screech “,because they’re that rough,they make you Screech when drinking it. The beans and sausage are best eaten warm,they just look like a pile of Gloop unheated.
When I was a Medic,we made it even worse by putting lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda,salt etc for dehydration during runs,route marches and operating on Very very warm days. 20 Gallon jerrycan of the stuff endeared you to the Troops ( Not )🤢🤢🤢
I totally agree nothing beats Kendal Mint Cake, all the energy you will ever need in a tiny pack & it tastes great; but you need a warm meal even if it's just porridge!
Mate the all day breakfasts are awesome. When we're getting issued our ration packs before deploying I'm fighting tooth and nail for one's with them in.
Man the main meals come in a retort pouch for a reason. Heat them up. Just because there is no flameless ration heater doesn't mean you can't heat up some water and dunk the pouches in it.
The reason why the "gross items" like the oatmeal bar and the sesame& honey bar are included is because they are doing double duty as good calories and help with digstion. They are a combination of a high GI ( glycaemic index, the way of measuring how food affects blood sugar) sugar, called a simple carbohydrate, that gives you energy straight away and a low GI complex carbohydrate that takes your body longer to digest so you get energy for longer, not just a sugar rush. Designed to help you feel full and recover after physical activity. Also the gum, oatmeal and sometimes cheese and chocolate appear as snacks but they are designed to help keep you regular.. Cheese or oatmeal = stops the runs, and the opposite effect comes from the gum or chocy = help you poop when you are constipated. So eat them as needed. The nuts or seeds are included for the good fats and most are a source of plant based protein. For example peanut butter (or other nut butters like almond or cashew) is used in disaster relief as a complete food for toddlers. Most often seen in areas where famine occurs and the babies are dangerously underweight. Sesame seeds, like most edible seeds, are good energy food, even if they get stuck in between teeth. Blessings from South Eastern Australia, Dot
I think you need to start eating these warmed up, at least the meal sections. The taste of the items will be so much better. That large sesame stick, oh my god, I love sesame snaps. I make my own, buy them it doesn't matter, they are so good. That large stick of sesame looked so good!
I think the weirdest MRE item I ate was a cherry pie filling type dessert, but I had my red lens on at night, and it looked like I was eating black poop chunks. Looked so awful but tasted so good! And I learned not to look at my food under red lens 😂
What you get to heat your ration depends on what youre doing, the ration heater stove are default, but vehicles have a built in boiling vessel, field kitchens have bigger things for heating stuff up and some groups are assigned flameless ration heaters... Or we ate them cold in a hole in the ground... Shame they changed screech (the energy drink powder) so it no longer resembles battery acid... The sessame bar is best warmed with a cup of tea...
@@Butterworthdasyrupmajority of British army vehicles had them fitted post Second World War as a number of tank crews were killed when stopping for a tea break… I know it sounds like I’m taking the piss but being serious
I forgot to mention, a yorkie bar was a big bar of chocolate that broke into big pieces. Back in the eighties there was a TV ad for yorkie that depicted a truck driver stopping for his break and pulling a bar out of his pocket while saying, "yorkie, not for woman" . The army took the piss by writing not for civvies. I hope this helps understand what I posted. Keep up the good work my mate 👍
@OBWanKenobi Google, British army ration pack from 1980. Click on images and scroll down until you find the yorkie bar with NOT FOR CIVVIES written on it. It's quite plain to see. Feel free to apologise any time
I' was a British Soldier in the 2000's and the American Soldiers preferred the RAT Packs the British had! Lancashire HotPot etc' to Swap!!! American lemon cake' I remembered NICE! but it looks like the New RAT Pack has taken the American MRE Style of Ration Packs.... Personally I thought that the MRE took up too much room in your Bergen!!! EAT and GO>>>>>> As mentioned below Tobacco Sauce was something we beef'ed up along with Toilet Roll lol. Good Caption Well done Sir' and keep up your work.
Both fire dragon stoves, and flameless ration heaters are used (NB you probably don't want to use those indoors; they give off fumes that set off smoke alarms) The best way to heat is boil in bag (less cleaning) you can even buy extra long spoons to reach the bottom of the pouch 🤣 They are designed to be eaten hot, or cold, but most mains are better hot
I've used that heater and the UK ration packs. I'm not military and registered blind. Used then fir camping. Kept me going strong. So many calories. Fuel for days. Enjoyed this vid.
@@Butterworthdasyrup you don’t need to use the hexi stove, just put them in a normal pan of water on your kitchen cooker - or maybe a plug-in electric hotplate if you want to keep them on set. Because yeah, cold sausage and beans is going to be nasty.
@@Butterworthdasyrup get an electric hot plate - it's flame free and will heat up a pot of water to put the pouch in, or you can stick the meal pouch straight on it.
3:30 If things are still the way I remember, the ideal for storing socks and scants was the bag the cartridges came in (10 boxes of 20 IIRC). Fairly sturdy plastic with a very robust seal and a cutout handle. My first platoon sergeant fixed one in a stream bed (tent peg through the cutout) and when we got back a week later at endex, there they were. Dry, presumably clean socks and scants to wear on our luxury 4 hour 4 tonner trip back to barracks. And the food is the way it is so that contact with the enemy is not going to be the worst thing that happens today.
@@razgriz380US instant coffee is terrible. But the general quality of their beans and pre-ground is actually really good. What I find tends to let it down is a lot of people and places there use those horrible drip filter machines. But even just switching to a manual pour over filter makes a big difference.
@@MechanicaMenace I have never managed to get a decent cup in the states, no matter how much you spend and decent research on artisan coffee houses. There's a reason that no one considers a US coffee house overseas. Want cheap-ish drinkable coffee, ok, Starbucks or equivalent. Want a decent coffee, avoid any US brew. They like to think they know what they are doing but they just don't know any better. Then have the audacity to criticise others...
@@razgriz380 ah. Ok. I'm more thinking about when buying the beans/ground coffee from a supermarket and making your own. Yeah that doesn't compare well to what you get from craft roasters in the UK, but it's a damn sight better than anything you get in a similar class here. Their good stuff may not be as good but their average is better. And TBF yeah I wouldn't make a beeline for an American chain outside of America but I also wouldn't consider Caffe Nero or Costa or Lavazza any better than Starbucks either.
As a modern US Soldier (thank you for your service!) I think you should try and make pemmican and decide if pemmican should go back in the modern MRE for today's soldiers. Plenty of videos out there on how to make it. I recommend the one from Townsends but pick whichever one you like.
When I was in the army, we'd break the rations down into 2 piles, keep and swap/bin. The classic contents in the '80's were biscuits brown, bacon grill, mince brown, rice etc. then the powdered drink was known as 'screech' mostly for the effects it had on you.
That into what incredible man. You need to keep that and use it for almost every MRE review, lol. Your videos have evolved so much, and I'm so happy I've been here since the beginning to see the growth. Keep it up, Sir. 💯
I was in the army in the early 80s, the 24 hrs ration pack was very different. It came in a box, you got biscuits which were so hard they could break teeth but edible when dunked in tea if you were desperate. Every pack had a stove like the one you have along with hexamin blocks which would last long enough to cook and make tea. The food was in tins, my favourites were the meat pudding and bacon grill but the can openers often were missing. They also had toilet paper, teabags, powdered milk, matches, chocolate, cheese in tins, sugar and coffee.
Another great video! Concur with the beans on toast sentiment in the comments...it is a Canadian thing too, just not to the same scale. I love the random appearance by your uniform nameplate at 1:10...I have collected a few over the years and I find it interesting how they squeeze down the longer names so they fit. On yours it looks like they cropped all the T's!
You need to heat that stuff up my man, cold beans is disgusting, a homeless person wouldnt even be so undignified. JUst boil some water and throw that bag in the water, you can tell the bag was intended to be thrown into water as it is plastic of sorts and not paper. Or you can use that plastic bag the food came in and pour hot water into that and throw the bag in. I dont know if they still do it but there used to be like a creamy rice thing in the older packs and we would throw that whole pack of chocolate powder in with it, one of my personal favorites. There was also the dreaded "biscuits brown" in the older packs, you wouldnt poop for a week after eating a pack of those
Come on brits, who remembers biscuits brown and the tin of pate? Had fruit biscuits and the oatmeal blick as well, i remember loving these that my dad brought home as a child. Oh and the chocolate that would go a bit white afyer a while but still good 😂 Anyway when did they change from the box anyway? It even had a target on it
The sesame block if it is anything like my time, it has multiple uses, you can use it as a weapon by throwing at someone, you can use it as armour, put it in your top left pocket to protect your heart (nothing short of a nuke is going to chip it), or be a bastard LT and when the copter drops you off in 5 ft of snow you can hand out a large bag of rations that consists of just the oatmeal bar.
I've got a tin of Horlicks tablets from my Dad's emergency rations from 1945. I've also still got my can opener issued in my first 24hr rat pack from 1976.
The idea of a field ration pack is that you can eat it cold out of the bag, but whenever possible you heat it up. To heat you boil water in your cup, place the sealed bag of food into the water to heat for a few minutes, it is then very good, hot and high in protein. The matches are wind resistant. The British do drink coffee, a lot of it.
The food ration bags I think are waterproof soldiers will have a ration cup in there rucksack you would just fetch water from a river or creek boil the water put the bag in the water to heat it up. the matches as well are waterproof and windproof.
- Sesame seed bar: The idea is like a granola bar or CRAP (Chocolate, Raisins And Peanuts😀) The sugar in the honey gives you a quick energy boost and the seeds give a slow energy release. You can dunk it/balance it on the rim of your mug of tea/coffee to soften it. - Chocolate and orange is a classic combination, much like mint & chocolate, but oddly Americans don't seem familiar with it. Try a Terry's Chocolate orange or a jaffa cake (Technically a cake due to it's sponge base, but more like a biscuit). Both are delicious. There's even a chocolate & orange liqueur called Cointreau.
Don’t forget, all British armoured vehicles are equipped with a BV (boiling vessel) which is basically a big square kettle. This ensures that hot water is always available for making tea, coffee, hot fruit drinks or for heating those boil in the bag MREs.
That's breakfast, second breakfast, brunch, and morning tea snacks all in one pack. More than enough to feed a single brit for half a day. Now just wait for the evening meal kit, that's a mind bender that is.
Oatmeal blocks have been in ration packs since there’s been army ration packs ! AND they’ve always been in those green foil bags so god knows how old that one could have been ? 😳🤣🤣🤣
The entire ration is supposed to stick together in your intestinal tract so that you aren’t having to drop out of a march too frequently, but the gum is supposed to help you open your bowels, as well as being sugar free so you don’t get tooth decay, it is also supposed to help keep your teeth clean. The matches used to be available in two colours red as you demonstrated and green for use as small signal flares and are wind proof and water resistant, they also used to be the strike anywhere type so you didn’t have a problem with losing the striking strip, instead you could strike them on a rock or on a metal zipper. The small pack of tissues was provided for multiple uses ie. Blowing the nose, wiping hands and face and for cleaning after the gum starts its final performance. The oat blocks used to be issued packed in tin cans in various numbers of biscuits per tin,5,10,20 and sometimes you would find a pack containing biscuits made with oats and some dried fruit usually currents or raisins.
You had one of the better MRE bags, that looks lovely. Some of the other packs are proper mingen. Eating an MRE cold can be honkin, boil bags for a reason.
Brit rations are really good, some bits you like, some you don't like every other nation on earth. The Curry is always brilliant! 20 days in the field no Royal Marine is saying 'ohh, the aftertaste...!' or 'Tea types we care about' or 'Al dente'
My grandpa showed me a trick he learnt in the British Army to take the Oatmeal biscuit, smash it up into a powder and mix it with hot water and creamer to make 'porridge'. He and I both share the experience of a hexi burner being included in the ration pack with wind and water proof matches to light them. Hexi burner, blocks of a flammable chemical set a light, to heat up your boil in the bag rations. I believe they do not come with the ration packs purchased in Army Surplus stores, and they are been done away with in the military due to them being 'harmful'.
I'm probably wrong, not sure if they still use them, but the uk/ nato use a waterbottle with a fitting cup/pot and a fitted piece to be used as a stove, so you just need a flammable element in the ration pack? Can see the benefits of the system, you can have hot food and a hot drink at the same time
@davehart1027 Do you mean the Hexi stove? Good bit of kit, square folding metal stove and a fire lighter to boil your water etc for hot rations. British rations can be eaten hot or cold, they've only just replaced the Hexi stove with a fire dragon gel based system. The metal water canteens and enamel mug went out shortly after WW2, the mug which the canteen sits in, is made of plastic. Metal mess tins are used.
@TomGayler hexi stoves are awesome, I use them for fishing, can pick them for a couple of quid in the summer! Tbh, not sure, was looking at camping cooking stuff a few years back, and saw something called a nato 58 or 68 something, it was basically a flask, with a metal cup/pot and a cooking thing which slid on the bottom, and fitted in a pouch, seemed a good design, wondered if it was standard issue tbh!
Another channel a few years back did the South Korean MRE's - I'd like to see you try one of those, and to see if it's been updated. The British squaddies who tried it, loved it.
You can eat any of it cold, it's all precooked, or you can heat it up by putting the bag into water and bringing it to the boil, and then use the hot water to make the tea or coffee. The matches are waterproof, so you can literally spend a day submerged in water and still light a match when you get into dry land. We call that powdered fruit flavoured drink "schreech" and if you taste it, as you just did, you'll know why. The bright shiny bags are stuck on trees and bushes after lunch so everyone (the enemy) knows we've been there.
As a current serving soldier in the British army reserve, I have mixed feelings for the issue rations. To start with, I was in the Army Cadet Force around 2006-2009. So, I've had some experience with the old cardboard rations. The most famous items from this ration were the Yorkie bars. They replaced them with Kendal mint cake, due to the yorkies melting in Iraq/Afgan. They also had things like, boiled sweets, soup, pate and fruit biscuits. The drinks were from a branded company, unlike the drinks we get now. Especially the tea and coffee we get now taste like drainage water. We also had a better selection of desserts. If you didn't know, the cake is the dessert. Most of the rations come with a different flavour cake. Some come with boiled in a bag dessert, but they are a downgrade from what I remember. I do like some of the snacks, but I wish we still had some of the snacks from the 2000's rations. Also to note, the rations have been slightly updated. The bag is now slightly smaller, with a sip lock. And it comes with a protein powder. So far, I've had banana, strawberry, and chocolate
The matches are waterproof/windproof, which is funny because the striker turns the mush if it gets damp. Most of the British personnel use a jetboil to heat their boil in the bags and then make a brew/wet with the water afterwards. If you're in a vehicle or armour, you would use the BV "Boiling Vessel" to heat the water/food.
The rations usd to come in cardboard boxes, but they decon plastic bgs recently. Some of the main meals in the rations are OK, some are rats, literally disgusting especially cold so they do tatse alot better when heated up, they done away with the chocolate bars and the proper creamy tea, real shame. The small munchies like the bird feed bar is just a waste of time, but the cookies are good and the marble cake is amazing, that is for winners .The cooker is what we get issued with the gel fire blocks so can cook heat up the boil in the bags with a mess tin, however, most don't bother as they use a jetboil or a small camping gas stove, depending role. The matches they now issue, the pink ones are crap, only get 5 when used to get 10 and the board is flimsy as f**k where as the matches we used to get were alot better by far as they light easier and the board with more rigid. Even though everyone had a lighter, the matches were still useful as they burn really hot and are windproof.
If you're going to 'test taste' a ration pack then do it properly, these rations are called 'boil in the bag' and are meant to be heated up before eating - mess-tin, hexi cooker (that little metal pop-up thingy) and water, the water is then used to make a brew. The aim is to eat and drink in under 10 minutes, especially when on a patrol, easily achievable.
That’s changed a lot since my day back in 2000. The matches are waterproof and the lemon flavour drink was always traded for orange if you could get it! Looks like they ditched the Tabasco sauce, that made a brief appearance in the mid 2000’s. Good show.
Since you love all the difference in MREs have you watched Jolly (korean englishmans 2nd channel) when they tried a bunch of different countries? Its great that you served so well get that comparison but they got to try some very interesting ones. Oh and they just happen to be from the UK.
I cannot believe you lost the Tabasco sauce! Every British MRE comes with one. One thing you should have done was to do a zoom call with a British Army soldier so you got the maximum benefit. However these are nothing compared with the Ration packs of the late 70s. We had more solid food in tins. For example:- Process Cheese, Bacon grill Baked beans. Then in packets came. Large Dog Biscuits. Usual tea, powdered milk, sugar. Orange powder drink, that left the powder taste in your mouth. This came with a fold out Hexamine stove and tablets, which reminded me of the parafin fire lighters you had at home to light a coal fire. Water proof matches. Sterile toilet paper that was made from thick kitchen greaseproof paper.
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Let me know what you liked or didn’t like from this video! If you want to send an MRE to try address is in the description. Thanks for watching!!
The whole video was amazing I was really curious about MREs my husband used to tell me about them and I always wondered what they were like so thank you for the awesome content 💜
I love you man but it's cringe when you don't eat something that's obviously meant to be heated like the beans. Sorry if it's no fun to do research but really.
Also, what is the music?
Yes, heat the beans!
Barbarian
@@nichevo1 I appreciate the feedback. In an effort to not burn my house down and eat it like soldiers in the field might I have chosen to eat everything cold. After 18 years of consuming MREs I can honestly say its pretty rare that I took the time to heat things up.
If it's British and it just says "tea" without specifying a variety then it's English Breakfast tea. That's the default.
Ballox it English breakfast , the tea in rat packs is supplied by tetley tea , it’s proper Yorkshire tea .
And if youre making a brew anyway, why not put your food in to heat up while you're at it. Water heats up ration pack, when done, it goes into your mug on the treabag.
Its most likely NAFFI tea. You can buy from NAAFI online shop. Think a few years ago you could get from Morrisons.
Why would you eat any of it cold. They come in boil in the bag for a reason, drop in hot water for 5 mins, get the chilli sauce in and away you go
Because while they are already fully cooked and they might be better when heated you're not always going to have that option to do so when out in the field, so a lot of reviewers eat them cold for this experience.
@@LawfullSpookI was in the RAuxAF. Not only did we take a burko for heating our rat packs and obviously our coffee. But, we took a TV for important events like Rugby internationals.
@@josephturner7569 That's because the RAF's idea of going on exercise is staying in a 3* hotel ;)
@@BrockyB91Jeeves!
Utter psychopath. Only lunatics, Americans and Observation Platoon eat cold rations
Wow. Steady on old boy. We've been drinking coffee since about 1650 🙂
The year we sobered up haha
infact we preferred coffee to tea, until the Boston harbour thing and we Drank tea to Spite the Colonials.
@@jackpowell9276 Because coffee houses were banned due to free thought, and we got pub culture and alcohol promotion to replace them and subdue the population xD
"I guess it's a British thing" - as a Brit, happy to say it is. We eat baked beans in tomato sauce on toast,with breakfast,with dinner.....you name it, we eat it with beans
I've heard that. Had beans on toast in Iraq at a chow hall for the first time back in 2007 and it was actually pretty good!
@@ButterworthdasyrupAdd some cheese and garlic powder to the beans, you have a winner! Found that out in a mess hall in Greece!
Toast the bread, bit of marmite, slap on some cheese slices, add beans with garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce. Smash it down! Brilliant little meal.
We even eat baked beans on toast with a side of baked beans.
@@BobbysGunChannelNot for me. Im an Aussie of Irish/Welsh parents and I love some HP sauce with my beans on toast so much I had a bottle delivered each month when I was in Iraq, couldn't get it sent through in Afghanistan though. Toasted cheese, toasted baked beans, toasted backed beans and cheese sandwiches I do enjoy but are molten hot out of the press.
All day breakfast is definitely one that needs to be warm to enjoy so different when it's heated
As Mother used to say "It's the most imporant meal of the day!" It aways tastes better warm, but I'd gobble it up stone cold if I had too!! Warm is sooooo much better though!!! And yes, MRE's do look like cat food but at least we don't have to eat paste out of a tube like the first Astronauts had to!!! Slava Ukraini!
I love how similar the Brits are to Americans when it comes to MREs, like: "Eat it or die, you aren't special." Meanwhile the French MREs come with candles and a tablecloth.
I have a few French ones, super excited to try those out
No joke though, got an MRE from a Legionaire when I was in Africa and it was fucking amazing.
@@Ducati121 When ever we came across the brits we would swap our french rations for theirs, because we prefer theirs to our ones. Brit rations from early 1990s came in a 📦 box, loved the pineapple in syrup 😋
Surely not a table cloth, possibly a white flag ready for the surrender
you want flavour?! here's a singular drop of hot sauce.
Yep, you get one cooker per day but normally use a jet boil to cook with...and yes, we cook our food unless we're on hard routine - it tastes far better when hot. Oatmeal blocks can be made into porridge with sugar, creamer and hot water. Great vid though
The oatmeal block porridge sounds pretty good
@Butterworthdasyrup it's delicious when you add the apricot jam on top 😋
The matches are storm matches. They stay lit in any weather.
So true, they burn through everything! Including your fingers!!!
assuming you can light them in the first place
Bengal matches, old school.
Phossy matches, windproof and they burn underwater.
“There’s nothing on this bag indicating how to open it”
That one sentence alone is all that is wrong with this world !
The bird food sesame seed bar is my favorite thing on earth. It should taste like a light honey peanut brittle but its seasme seeds instead of peanuts. Seasme seeds are REALLY good for you!!! Its a middle eastern treat. I Loooooooove them
Sesame snaps are a thing in Canada. You get 4 thin wafers of sesame & honey. I think they are good!
If you say so 😅
The thin ones are much better than the sesame brick, I will concede that
Dude the seasame bars are one of the single worst things to grace our MRE's. Everyone uses them as cement for defence building or gifts them to this weird Lieutenant we have that loves them. I was gutted when working with American Troops and they were pulling M&Ms out of their rucks and I had apricot jam and an oatmeal block 🤣
Hahah I couldn't believe how hard it was!
Back in my day, it was a big old yorkie bar that had the words ' not for civvies' on the wrapper
The ones in the new cold climate rations are softer, much improved
I'd rather have the jam and oatmeal block. Never had any complaints with my MRE's and swapped away items like the chocolate.
🤣🤣🤣
Oatmeal Blocks have been in British Rat Packs at least since the 1980's and packed exactly the same - eat them as they are or dissolve with water and milk power to make a porridge.
The matches used to be called "Bengal Matches" and have a much larger phosphorus head than normal to make them much more wind resistent
The oatmeal bars were in Compo rations in the 60s at least :-)
I loved them. Really useful. Can eat on own or mix with hot chocolate & other things like jam & fruit to make an 'All-In porridge' in a hurry. Here you could use the jam, sesame bar etc
Those are not Bengal Matches, Bengal Matches are a novelty for kids to play with that light up green or purple, we always used to get them at bonfire night along with the sparklers.
@@GreatSageSunWukong Irrelevent! they were always CALLED Bengal Matches and were issued in 24 Hr rat Packs in the 70's and 80's
I loved them when my dad bought ratpacks home. Apparently I wasn't supposed to eat a couple a day as snacks since they're supposed to be made into a whole bowl of porridge or something? Idk, I just ate them
If you want a real treat try the Australian 24 hour Ration, possibly the best ever made. The bag is a "poop bag", We leave NOTHING for the enemy to find..
I'm serious, it really is.
Tyler, since you only just discovered the joy of the orange/chocolate combination, let me recommend a Terry's Chocolate Orange which is also British. They're common around holidays now in the US. It's an orange sized ball of chocolate that you hit on a hard surface to break apart into slices. Enjoy!
I’ve had one of those as a kid around Easter, brings back some good memories!
My sister used my head to crack hers. I've banked the memory (yes, surprising I have any) and revenge will be sweet (it's been about 20 years) 😂
@@Butterworthdasyrup Or Jaffa Cakes ... mmmmm ... bugger, now I want a pack
Whack it, don’t tap it! Loved the Dawn French ads x
@@antoinettegordon9704it's not Terry's it's mine
I could listen to this man talk about MRE's for days
I am gonna keep this going for sure!
I think that's kinda the plan.
you’ve not met steve 1989
The average British Squaddie often carried a bottle of Tobasco sauce to liven up the food. I'm old school so favourite was a can of chicken curry with boil in a bag rice. Cooked on a Hexamine stove. 😊
We also carry hot sauces of many different varieties in the field
It came in the ratpacks years ago! A tiny bottle
I have an old British field manual and on the page for the old rat packs it suggest carrying hot sauce, and spices to add variety to the meal because while you're suppose to get a different menu each day you often end up with the same one for weeks on end
Menu A if I remember correctly... my favourite 😊
The chocolate pudding all day and for shame I was a biscuits fruit kinda girl lol
Legend has it that a sesame seed bar once stopped an APFSDS round from a T90. The soldier walked away with a bit of bruising. Apparently it was still edible afterwards.
The edible part is the unbelieveable bit :)
The sesame bar or the soldier🧐?
@@darrenyoung001 soldiers 100% more edible the with hot sauce added, then again so's the plastic bag.
" Very Limey" ... laughs cause its a brititsh mre XD
Deffo better if you boil some water and pop the bag in for 5 mins. Makes it so much better.
Loved this, really great to watch!
12:00 so fun fact, 'Sesame and Honey' bars have been around for atleast 2500 years (probably more). It was a common snack for the Olympians in Greece.
They sell those in American hardware stores
They're now being dug up from Pompeii and put in ration packs!😂
@@utbdoug that's hilarious 😅
The fruit juices are called “ Screech “,because they’re that rough,they make you Screech when drinking it.
The beans and sausage are best eaten warm,they just look like a pile of Gloop unheated.
They also get called 'battery acid' but screech is certainly more common.
When I was a Medic,we made it even worse by putting lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda,salt etc for dehydration during runs,route marches and operating on Very very warm days.
20 Gallon jerrycan of the stuff endeared you to the Troops ( Not )🤢🤢🤢
@@williammurray3914I used to carry diaralite sachets
It looks like a pile of gloop heated, too. Never look in the bag, just stick the spork in and start eating.
You beat me to it. Just like the boiled sweets in the 80s Avoid The Green Ones!
The only way to consume the sesame bar is to soak it in your hot tea. Otherwise you’ll crack a tooth
Most epic Military Chef i've ever seen. I'm glad i met you , Mr Butterworth ! ❤
Get some delicious Jaffa Cakes. If you liked the chocolate/orange, you'll probably like them. Also, for hiking/walks, NOTHING beats Kendal Mint Cake.
Gonna have to find some Jaffa Cakes and Kendal Mint Cake
I totally agree nothing beats Kendal Mint Cake, all the energy you will ever need in a tiny pack & it tastes great; but you need a warm meal even if it's just porridge!
The intro keeps getting better amd better 😂😂😂
My guy Jean Claude is pretty dang good
@@Butterworthdasyrup promote above peers
@@Butterworthdasyrup also your audio quality is amazing
@@Butterworthdasyrupshoutout to Jean Claude
All that stuff and no flipping Kendal Mint Cake!
I am watching this while out on the field with the Greek Army. Great to see someone try a pasteli( the seasame bar) that the army gives us
Lemme get one of those Greek MREs mmmmmmm
@@Butterworthdasyrup I will try to get you one when I get back from the field
@@crazy_raccoon_photography8719 send one to Steve MRE :-)😊
Mate the all day breakfasts are awesome. When we're getting issued our ration packs before deploying I'm fighting tooth and nail for one's with them in.
Back in my day we got Bacon Grills. Yeesh.
@@simonhibbs887ok grandad 😎
Man the main meals come in a retort pouch for a reason. Heat them up. Just because there is no flameless ration heater doesn't mean you can't heat up some water and dunk the pouches in it.
Plus, if you've got a ride, there's a BV in there, so you don't even need the hexi stove.
The reason why the "gross items" like the oatmeal bar and the sesame& honey bar are included is because they are doing double duty as good calories and help with digstion. They are a combination of a high GI ( glycaemic index, the way of measuring how food affects blood sugar) sugar, called a simple carbohydrate, that gives you energy straight away and a low GI complex carbohydrate that takes your body longer to digest so you get energy for longer, not just a sugar rush. Designed to help you feel full and recover after physical activity.
Also the gum, oatmeal and sometimes cheese and chocolate appear as snacks but they are designed to help keep you regular.. Cheese or oatmeal = stops the runs, and the opposite effect comes from the gum or chocy = help you poop when you are constipated. So eat them as needed.
The nuts or seeds are included for the good fats and most are a source of plant based protein. For example peanut butter (or other nut butters like almond or cashew) is used in disaster relief as a complete food for toddlers. Most often seen in areas where famine occurs and the babies are dangerously underweight.
Sesame seeds, like most edible seeds, are good energy food, even if they get stuck in between teeth.
Blessings from South Eastern Australia, Dot
You put a lot of work into these MRE videos, they are awesome. I hope these videos get the views they deserve. Good job.
Hahah I hope they get the views too. I love making them!
I 2x that comment! ❤
I think you need to start eating these warmed up, at least the meal sections. The taste of the items will be so much better. That large sesame stick, oh my god, I love sesame snaps. I make my own, buy them it doesn't matter, they are so good. That large stick of sesame looked so good!
I assure you the sesame bar was not the best
I think the weirdest MRE item I ate was a cherry pie filling type dessert, but I had my red lens on at night, and it looked like I was eating black poop chunks. Looked so awful but tasted so good! And I learned not to look at my food under red lens 😂
I too have eaten food that looked like it had black poop chunks in it haha
“We’re gonna do it my way. America!” 🇺🇸 🎉
America, ALWAYS
*bald eagle screech*
“Nice I like that” taking notes from our favorite mre connoisseur.
Steve
What you get to heat your ration depends on what youre doing, the ration heater stove are default, but vehicles have a built in boiling vessel, field kitchens have bigger things for heating stuff up and some groups are assigned flameless ration heaters... Or we ate them cold in a hole in the ground... Shame they changed screech (the energy drink powder) so it no longer resembles battery acid...
The sessame bar is best warmed with a cup of tea...
Thats really neat that they have boiling vessels in the vehicles
@@Butterworthdasyrupmajority of British army vehicles had them fitted post Second World War as a number of tank crews were killed when stopping for a tea break… I know it sounds like I’m taking the piss but being serious
Back in my day, we had a big old yorkie bar that had 'not for civvies' written on the wrapper in our ration packs
I forgot to mention, a yorkie bar was a big bar of chocolate that broke into big pieces.
Back in the eighties there was a TV ad for yorkie that depicted a truck driver stopping for his break and pulling a bar out of his pocket while saying, "yorkie, not for woman" .
The army took the piss by writing not for civvies.
I hope this helps understand what I posted. Keep up the good work my mate 👍
@@matthewbishop9342it was "not for girls" in the TV advertising campaign
@OBWanKenobi nope, that was the retail version. The ones we had, had not for civvies on them
@@matthewbishop9342 I know that. You said "not for women" it was "not for girls" in the TV advert
@OBWanKenobi Google, British army ration pack from 1980. Click on images and scroll down until you find the yorkie bar with NOT FOR CIVVIES written on it. It's quite plain to see.
Feel free to apologise any time
I' was a British Soldier in the 2000's and the American Soldiers preferred the RAT Packs the British had! Lancashire HotPot etc' to Swap!!! American lemon cake' I remembered NICE! but it looks like the New RAT Pack has taken the American MRE Style of Ration Packs.... Personally I thought that the MRE took up too much room in your Bergen!!! EAT and GO>>>>>> As mentioned below Tobacco Sauce was something we beef'ed up along with Toilet Roll lol. Good Caption Well done Sir' and keep up your work.
Both fire dragon stoves, and flameless ration heaters are used (NB you probably don't want to use those indoors; they give off fumes that set off smoke alarms)
The best way to heat is boil in bag (less cleaning) you can even buy extra long spoons to reach the bottom of the pouch 🤣
They are designed to be eaten hot, or cold, but most mains are better hot
Just because it says "Breakfast" doesn't mean it's supposed to be cold. Gotta heat that bad boy up and it's not too bad.
I've used that heater and the UK ration packs. I'm not military and registered blind. Used then fir camping. Kept me going strong. So many calories. Fuel for days.
Enjoyed this vid.
Why don’t you heat up the mains? I know not always, but aren’t they mostly eaten that way in the field?
For one I don't want to burn down my house and two a lot of times meals aren't heated up in the field. At least thats my experience.
@@Butterworthdasyrup you don’t need to use the hexi stove, just put them in a normal pan of water on your kitchen cooker - or maybe a plug-in electric hotplate if you want to keep them on set. Because yeah, cold sausage and beans is going to be nasty.
@@Butterworthdasyrup get an electric hot plate - it's flame free and will heat up a pot of water to put the pouch in, or you can stick the meal pouch straight on it.
3:30 If things are still the way I remember, the ideal for storing socks and scants was the bag the cartridges came in (10 boxes of 20 IIRC). Fairly sturdy plastic with a very robust seal and a cutout handle. My first platoon sergeant fixed one in a stream bed (tent peg through the cutout) and when we got back a week later at endex, there they were. Dry, presumably clean socks and scants to wear on our luxury 4 hour 4 tonner trip back to barracks.
And the food is the way it is so that contact with the enemy is not going to be the worst thing that happens today.
I've had that ration pack in the past. It lasted me 2 x 24hr camping trips, in a local wood, the powdered drinks I drank in the house.
I love that you put music in the background!
For some of it…
As a brit i can safely say we also love coffee ☕️
Great vid man!
Thank you!
And it happens to be of a fair higher standard than your typical US stuff. Those from the continent choke down the US attempt.
@@razgriz380US instant coffee is terrible. But the general quality of their beans and pre-ground is actually really good. What I find tends to let it down is a lot of people and places there use those horrible drip filter machines. But even just switching to a manual pour over filter makes a big difference.
@@MechanicaMenace I have never managed to get a decent cup in the states, no matter how much you spend and decent research on artisan coffee houses. There's a reason that no one considers a US coffee house overseas. Want cheap-ish drinkable coffee, ok, Starbucks or equivalent. Want a decent coffee, avoid any US brew. They like to think they know what they are doing but they just don't know any better. Then have the audacity to criticise others...
@@razgriz380 ah. Ok. I'm more thinking about when buying the beans/ground coffee from a supermarket and making your own. Yeah that doesn't compare well to what you get from craft roasters in the UK, but it's a damn sight better than anything you get in a similar class here. Their good stuff may not be as good but their average is better.
And TBF yeah I wouldn't make a beeline for an American chain outside of America but I also wouldn't consider Caffe Nero or Costa or Lavazza any better than Starbucks either.
As a modern US Soldier (thank you for your service!) I think you should try and make pemmican and decide if pemmican should go back in the modern MRE for today's soldiers.
Plenty of videos out there on how to make it. I recommend the one from Townsends but pick whichever one you like.
When I was in the army, we'd break the rations down into 2 piles, keep and swap/bin. The classic contents in the '80's were biscuits brown, bacon grill, mince brown, rice etc. then the powdered drink was known as 'screech' mostly for the effects it had on you.
You forgot cheese possessed 🤣🤣
@@stuartmckee1655 And babies ‘eads, and biscuits AB (Which I always thought stood for always broken)🤣
@@glennrowe2961 I think that's what the black nasty (gaffa) tape was for, to fix the biscuits AB, after all we used it to fix everything else!
@@glennrowe2961 oh yeh! It always went in the nasty bags (packed lunches) along with mystery paste sandwiches
That into what incredible man. You need to keep that and use it for almost every MRE review, lol.
Your videos have evolved so much, and I'm so happy I've been here since the beginning to see the growth.
Keep it up, Sir. 💯
Appreciate it! Love making these!
+10 for the Grey Poupon reference!
I was in the army in the early 80s, the 24 hrs ration pack was very different. It came in a box, you got biscuits which were so hard they could break teeth but edible when dunked in tea if you were desperate. Every pack had a stove like the one you have along with hexamin blocks which would last long enough to cook and make tea. The food was in tins, my favourites were the meat pudding and bacon grill but the can openers often were missing. They also had toilet paper, teabags, powdered milk, matches, chocolate, cheese in tins, sugar and coffee.
I was in the cadets as a teenager, we went on camp and had some tinned ration cheese. 40 years later, my old rucksack still smells of the stuff!
Another great video! Concur with the beans on toast sentiment in the comments...it is a Canadian thing too, just not to the same scale.
I love the random appearance by your uniform nameplate at 1:10...I have collected a few over the years and I find it interesting how they squeeze down the longer names so they fit. On yours it looks like they cropped all the T's!
Why is this better than Hollywood level production?! There’s a fcktn of content on prime way worse than this.
Also…. Real excited for the spoon.
My Grandad was a crew flight chief in the queens flight, RAF in the 60/70s. His crews rations occasionally consisted of high tea with the queen mother
Let’s get this out onto a tray… Nice
These videos are so calming and funny. Loving them!
The matches are windproof/waterproof.
You need to heat that stuff up my man, cold beans is disgusting, a homeless person wouldnt even be so undignified. JUst boil some water and throw that bag in the water, you can tell the bag was intended to be thrown into water as it is plastic of sorts and not paper. Or you can use that plastic bag the food came in and pour hot water into that and throw the bag in.
I dont know if they still do it but there used to be like a creamy rice thing in the older packs and we would throw that whole pack of chocolate powder in with it, one of my personal favorites.
There was also the dreaded "biscuits brown" in the older packs, you wouldnt poop for a week after eating a pack of those
Come on brits, who remembers biscuits brown and the tin of pate? Had fruit biscuits and the oatmeal blick as well, i remember loving these that my dad brought home as a child. Oh and the chocolate that would go a bit white afyer a while but still good 😂
Anyway when did they change from the box anyway? It even had a target on it
During the 2010's
There used to be somethign in the US called a bumble bar. It was honey and sesame seeds, but it was softer and tasted pretty good.
The sesame block if it is anything like my time, it has multiple uses, you can use it as a weapon by throwing at someone, you can use it as armour, put it in your top left pocket to protect your heart (nothing short of a nuke is going to chip it), or be a bastard LT and when the copter drops you off in 5 ft of snow you can hand out a large bag of rations that consists of just the oatmeal bar.
I've got a tin of Horlicks tablets from my Dad's emergency rations from 1945. I've also still got my can opener issued in my first 24hr rat pack from 1976.
The brew-kit bag can be used with the water purification tablets. Purify the water before putting it in your canteen.
The idea of a field ration pack is that you can eat it cold out of the bag, but whenever possible you heat it up. To heat you boil water in your cup, place the sealed bag of food into the water to heat for a few minutes, it is then very good, hot and high in protein. The matches are wind resistant. The British do drink coffee, a lot of it.
The food ration bags I think are waterproof soldiers will have a ration cup in there rucksack you would just fetch water from a river or creek boil the water put the bag in the water to heat it up. the matches as well are waterproof and windproof.
British hard tack can be used for river crossing. By soaking up the river.
The matches are that way because they are meant to be stormproof and work when they are wet or in the wind.
- Sesame seed bar: The idea is like a granola bar or CRAP (Chocolate, Raisins And Peanuts😀) The sugar in the honey gives you a quick energy boost and the seeds give a slow energy release. You can dunk it/balance it on the rim of your mug of tea/coffee to soften it.
- Chocolate and orange is a classic combination, much like mint & chocolate, but oddly Americans don't seem familiar with it. Try a Terry's Chocolate orange or a jaffa cake (Technically a cake due to it's sponge base, but more like a biscuit). Both are delicious. There's even a chocolate & orange liqueur called Cointreau.
Flashbacks to biscuits brown and the smell of hexiblocks taining the taste of everything.. Bliss!
I absolutely loved the new ration packets, but you really need to try one of the old ones, you can't beat dead fly biscuits and bacon burgers!
Don’t forget, all British armoured vehicles are equipped with a BV (boiling vessel) which is basically a big square kettle. This ensures that hot water is always available for making tea, coffee, hot fruit drinks or for heating those boil in the bag MREs.
Love these, i just binged them all - so interesting! And fun 😁
If you heat things up, they do taste different, also the sesame seed bar is not to eat, it’s to throw at the enemy when you run out of ammo !
That's breakfast, second breakfast, brunch, and morning tea snacks all in one pack. More than enough to feed a single brit for half a day. Now just wait for the evening meal kit, that's a mind bender that is.
Instant coffee - so called because there is only one instant when it actually tastes like coffee. If you don't hurry, you'll miss it.
Oatmeal blocks have been in ration packs since there’s been army ration packs ! AND they’ve always been in those green foil bags so god knows how old that one could have been ? 😳🤣🤣🤣
The entire ration is supposed to stick together in your intestinal tract so that you aren’t having to drop out of a march too frequently, but the gum is supposed to help you open your bowels, as well as being sugar free so you don’t get tooth decay, it is also supposed to help keep your teeth clean. The matches used to be available in two colours red as you demonstrated and green for use as small signal flares and are wind proof and water resistant, they also used to be the strike anywhere type so you didn’t have a problem with losing the striking strip, instead you could strike them on a rock or on a metal zipper. The small pack of tissues was provided for multiple uses ie. Blowing the nose, wiping hands and face and for cleaning after the gum starts its final performance. The oat blocks used to be issued packed in tin cans in various numbers of biscuits per tin,5,10,20 and sometimes you would find a pack containing biscuits made with oats and some dried fruit usually currents or raisins.
You had one of the better MRE bags, that looks lovely.
Some of the other packs are proper mingen.
Eating an MRE cold can be honkin, boil bags for a reason.
Enjoyed every minute. Great stuff Tyler
Thanks Dennis!
14:14 - Yes, he said the British drink was "very limey."
Just discovered the longer videos and I'm here for it
Appreciate it a lot more to come!
Brit rations are really good, some bits you like, some you don't like every other nation on earth.
The Curry is always brilliant!
20 days in the field no Royal Marine is saying 'ohh, the aftertaste...!' or 'Tea types we care about' or 'Al dente'
My grandpa showed me a trick he learnt in the British Army to take the Oatmeal biscuit, smash it up into a powder and mix it with hot water and creamer to make 'porridge'. He and I both share the experience of a hexi burner being included in the ration pack with wind and water proof matches to light them. Hexi burner, blocks of a flammable chemical set a light, to heat up your boil in the bag rations. I believe they do not come with the ration packs purchased in Army Surplus stores, and they are been done away with in the military due to them being 'harmful'.
I'm probably wrong, not sure if they still use them, but the uk/ nato use a waterbottle with a fitting cup/pot and a fitted piece to be used as a stove, so you just need a flammable element in the ration pack?
Can see the benefits of the system, you can have hot food and a hot drink at the same time
@davehart1027 Do you mean the Hexi stove? Good bit of kit, square folding metal stove and a fire lighter to boil your water etc for hot rations. British rations can be eaten hot or cold, they've only just replaced the Hexi stove with a fire dragon gel based system. The metal water canteens and enamel mug went out shortly after WW2, the mug which the canteen sits in, is made of plastic. Metal mess tins are used.
@TomGayler hexi stoves are awesome, I use them for fishing, can pick them for a couple of quid in the summer!
Tbh, not sure, was looking at camping cooking stuff a few years back, and saw something called a nato 58 or 68 something, it was basically a flask, with a metal cup/pot and a cooking thing which slid on the bottom, and fitted in a pouch, seemed a good design, wondered if it was standard issue tbh!
Another channel a few years back did the South Korean MRE's - I'd like to see you try one of those, and to see if it's been updated. The British squaddies who tried it, loved it.
Was that the KoreanEnglishman channel by any chance? Or maybe Jolly (same people, different channel)
@@SatumangoTheGreat Jolly
To be honest, I think I preferred the old "compo" rations that we had back in the day. Supplemented by a hot egg banjo!
You can eat any of it cold, it's all precooked, or you can heat it up by putting the bag into water and bringing it to the boil, and then use the hot water to make the tea or coffee.
The matches are waterproof, so you can literally spend a day submerged in water and still light a match when you get into dry land.
We call that powdered fruit flavoured drink "schreech" and if you taste it, as you just did, you'll know why.
The bright shiny bags are stuck on trees and bushes after lunch so everyone (the enemy) knows we've been there.
As a current serving soldier in the British army reserve, I have mixed feelings for the issue rations.
To start with, I was in the Army Cadet Force around 2006-2009.
So, I've had some experience with the old cardboard rations.
The most famous items from this ration were the Yorkie bars.
They replaced them with Kendal mint cake, due to the yorkies melting in Iraq/Afgan.
They also had things like, boiled sweets, soup, pate and fruit biscuits. The drinks were from a branded company, unlike the drinks we get now.
Especially the tea and coffee we get now taste like drainage water.
We also had a better selection of desserts.
If you didn't know, the cake is the dessert.
Most of the rations come with a different flavour cake.
Some come with boiled in a bag dessert, but they are a downgrade from what I remember.
I do like some of the snacks, but I wish we still had some of the snacks from the 2000's rations.
Also to note, the rations have been slightly updated. The bag is now slightly smaller, with a sip lock. And it comes with a protein powder. So far, I've had banana, strawberry, and chocolate
The matches are waterproof/windproof, which is funny because the striker turns the mush if it gets damp.
Most of the British personnel use a jetboil to heat their boil in the bags and then make a brew/wet with the water afterwards. If you're in a vehicle or armour, you would use the BV "Boiling Vessel" to heat the water/food.
Most of it is meant to be eaten hot, boil in the bag then make a brew with the hot water. Win win.
The rations usd to come in cardboard boxes, but they decon plastic bgs recently. Some of the main meals in the rations are OK, some are rats, literally disgusting especially cold so they do tatse alot better when heated up, they done away with the chocolate bars and the proper creamy tea, real shame. The small munchies like the bird feed bar is just a waste of time, but the cookies are good and the marble cake is amazing, that is for winners .The cooker is what we get issued with the gel fire blocks so can cook heat up the boil in the bags with a mess tin, however, most don't bother as they use a jetboil or a small camping gas stove, depending role. The matches they now issue, the pink ones are crap, only get 5 when used to get 10 and the board is flimsy as f**k where as the matches we used to get were alot better by far as they light easier and the board with more rigid. Even though everyone had a lighter, the matches were still useful as they burn really hot and are windproof.
If you're going to 'test taste' a ration pack then do it properly, these rations are called 'boil in the bag' and are meant to be heated up before eating - mess-tin, hexi cooker (that little metal pop-up thingy) and water, the water is then used to make a brew. The aim is to eat and drink in under 10 minutes, especially when on a patrol, easily achievable.
Can't believe you didn't get any Biscuits, Brown. Iconic rations item.
That’s changed a lot since my day back in 2000. The matches are waterproof and the lemon flavour drink was always traded for orange if you could get it! Looks like they ditched the Tabasco sauce, that made a brief appearance in the mid 2000’s. Good show.
Since you love all the difference in MREs have you watched Jolly (korean englishmans 2nd channel) when they tried a bunch of different countries? Its great that you served so well get that comparison but they got to try some very interesting ones. Oh and they just happen to be from the UK.
Interesting will have to check them out!
🤣🤣🤣I can't do that anymore! The Mustache-Logo 🤣🤣
I cannot believe you lost the Tabasco sauce! Every British MRE comes with one.
One thing you should have done was to do a zoom call with a British Army soldier so you got the maximum benefit.
However these are nothing compared with the Ration packs of the late 70s.
We had more solid food in tins.
For example:-
Process Cheese,
Bacon grill
Baked beans.
Then in packets came.
Large Dog Biscuits.
Usual tea, powdered milk, sugar.
Orange powder drink, that left the powder taste in your mouth.
This came with a fold out Hexamine stove and tablets, which reminded me of the parafin fire lighters you had at home to light a coal fire.
Water proof matches.
Sterile toilet paper that was made from thick kitchen greaseproof paper.
We grew up getting honey sesame sticks for a treat every once in a while when we’d go to a Greek grocery store (my dads Greek)
Soon you will get Korean ration
I would be honored to try it!
@@ButterworthdasyrupThe tracking number is CA011252760KR. Maybe you can get it within 2 to 3 weeks.
What I really miss from the '70s & '80s; corned beef hash & bacon & beans. Absolute joy after a hard day. Especially 30 degrees south