Those meals are supposed to come as three meals pr 24 hours. The arctic meal is supposed to come out at 5000 calories pr 24 hours, seeing as one uses more calories during cold weather. There is a breakfast meal of cereals, but lunch and dinner is for example chicken curry, pasta, stew etc. For operations it’s generally a good idea of opening the rations and split it in readily available, smaller packs. Some of it is for example good to have in a pocket in your plate-carrier/vest, in the top-lid of your daypack etc. One can compress the volume substantially when one split the rations. Generally a patrol boil water for the next 24 hours and keep 24 hours of rations and hot water on one’s person/pack. Some boneheads experiment with the amount of water in the rations - less water means less shits in the field. Problem is one can get constipated.. Anyway - good stuff! The firm Drytech that produce Real Turmat is from Tromsø, Norway.
I call them weight watchers meals, in North Pole training you'll eat two a day, and a ton of chocolate if it wasn't so dam cold it would be a great day. Cool you make them I'm truly grateful and would love to visit and maybe give a few idea's for menu's.
@@Maggi9909 It's the chewing gum that makes the difference, regular is mint, but the TACTICAL edition has mint STRAWBERRY :O It means you shoot harder!
Or just depending on what is easily available and what you feel like eating. Many times I've eaten some of the leftovers of the previous day's dinner for breakfast because it was really good and right there for me to warm up. Other times I've ordered pizza for brunch. The possibilities are limitless and delicious once you stop thinking of certain foods as non-breakfast. Usually I just make a grilled cheese sandwhich for breakfast, though.
@@CombatArmsChannel Regarding Decilitres though. Here at least in Norway (and I have little reason to think it'd be different in other metric countries) I'd say it's the most common measurement for liquid at least in cooking.
@@curom6593 As a Norwegian myself, I have gotten more than a few confused looks in different European countries, when I've used deciliters. A lot of countries doesn't use it and go straight from liters to milliliters, and some that use centiliters.
The company that sells the MREs to the Norwegian army has 2 sections one for military and one for civilian the civilian is called REAL turmat(trip-food) if you go to there website you can order civilian and military MREs
One point to the corners being easy to open. Remember, these are supposed to be enjoyed in arctic conditions. In sub-zero conditions, your finger dexterity just...craps itself... So, these need to be easy to open
🇳🇴hi from norway, Nice of you too taste Norwegian MRI. Vi van buy this real food in sportshops. So we take this with us on Fishing trips, or on climbing.
Norwegian "real" mean proper, hearty etc. Also, no self heating since that doesn't work well in -30 Celcius if anyone is curious. Edit: We usually get three of these /day, two warm menus and a breakfast one. Have to eat it all when you burn 7-10k calories a day during winter. And yeah, the spoons suck.
@@Rikard_Nilsson The reason for this is that temperature actually relates logarithmic to thermal energy, my highschool chemistry teacher gave us a shorthand that we should think that the reaction time of a chemical reaction is multiplied by two for every ten degrees we heat something. So dropping from 20 to 0 degrees means two such steps And even an exothermic reaction like the one in heat packs happen at roughly a quarter of the pace.
I was conscript in the Norwegian army about 25 years ago. In Norway we called the field ration for RSP. I have forgotten what that mean, but we joked about it meaning: Rester av Sprengt Personell, Translated to English it would mean something like: Rest of Blownup Personell
I'd rather punch a guy so hard in the stomach he pukes, and eat that, than eating one more can of RSP. I have friends buying RSP cans dated like back to 1968 on military auctions, eating that shit on hikes and what not, must suffer from brain damage or something. Those new rations though are actually quite good. And as others have pointed out, you can buy them in stores. During the Covid-19 lock down people started hiking a lot more, and it was impossible to get your hands on Real and similar brands.
During exercises we got these drytech MRE's, but otherwise we often were delivered a trash bag of food with bread, butter, pålegg (which doesn't have any direct English translation, but its anything you put on the bread like hams and cheese) and hermetic cans. The cans tended to crush everything else and tear open all the items in the bag so the bread was barely edible and the cans were laced with butter. I dreaded every time we opened a box of Snurring, I swear that thing is recycled cafeteria mix that has been peppered to the point where you can no longer taste the original ingredients
Hey. We in Norway are proud of our field ration. One pluss for the Norwegian rations. You can eat it every day with out getting any stomach problems. Real meal we can bay I stores. I use it every time when I go hiking or hunting. That Rett I Koppen soup. Is great with some warm water. It's a good snack.
@@CombatArmsChannel actually its one of the better ones from the artic rations x) fill it up with hot water up to the line on the outside of the bag, stir it upp. then wait 5 minutes.
Those Norwegians and Estoninan packages look much fancier than the ones I had in Finnish army in 2001-2002. Nontheless everyting tastes great when you are wet and cold in the forest. And btw, well made curry is the most delicious food of all.
Here's a bit fresher pack of Finnish MRE, from 2017. Lost of consumer products, like always. th-cam.com/video/yq52TqxY-f8/w-d-xo.html That "Outdoor" brand is not great, tastes so bland. Real is far better choice IMHO.
as an conscript from 2001/2002 in norway , i can say at that time it was an experiment between the freeze dried stuff you show (3 tastes back then, Cod with white sauce, a pasta or spahetthi thing, and a third i cant even remember, so prob pretty standard) and their old A and B rations, combined with fresh bread with single use spread on, like Nutella, Jams and butter, for drinks, just sugary flavoured 1/2l mixes for our field flask., as snacks, we had a small plate of milk chocolate, a small box of raisins and a small bag of Malt candy, same thing the RAF used on longer bombing mission in WW2. when close to base, we had 1/4 L milk carton boxes as a treat after that i cant say what they have done ^^
In 2001-2002 the Norwegian field rations were much more bland. The company that makes most of these meals that is showed in this vid is quite recent. They make food of excellent quality for the purpose. I often get really surprised by how good food this is. It's easily good enough to eat most days, except for the price. It's much easier getting the appropriate nutrition in the field these days.
Drytech is a company that sells foods online. "Rett i koppen" is well known product in Norway that almost always includes "add boiling water". To a certain extent, that applies to most of Drytech's products as well. They where pretty good when I served in early 2000's
The Norwegian REAL Artic Field Ration comes in both breakfast/lunch options, as well as dinner. They're bought in larger crates, containing 24 servings each crate. They're specially designed to be used in cold weather warfare/survival, in the way that they pack a decent amount of kcal and fairly light weight. Typically in a ration you'll find something chewy (crackers, jerky, meal bars etc), something sweet (chocolate, berries etc), something nourishing (oatmeal (breakfast), curry chicken (dinner) etc), something refreshing (energy drink, coffee etc) and some condiments (hot sauce, jam etc). They're all mixed differently, which makes sure that you'll spend a little while before you get tired of them (but you will get tired of them, really tired). You can read more about them here; www.norwegianfoodstore.com/product/real-artic-field-ration-1300-kcal-24-pcs/ I would also like to add that the manufacturer of these rations, REAL, also makes; REAL Turmat (outdoor meals for hiking, expeditions etc), REAL On the go (nutritious snacks for adding more to your meals), and of course the REAL Field Meals (which you're reviewing here). You can read all about it here; realoutdoorfood.com/ Take care!
You might want to try another pack. My personal favourites are: Chicken tikka masala/Pulled pork/chili con carne, with Columbia coffe, dark chocolate bar, beef bar, salted peanuts, lemon drink and chewing gum. If you carry a little chilli powder or allround spice with you, it gives the main dish just that little extra lift that it needs.
The brand "Rett i koppen" (Straight into the cup) is a commercial brand (TORO). it comes in a variety of soups and instant cocoa drinks, but it is made for hot water.
Artic ration = one meal for summer and winter in Norway/Europe that only needs hot water added and where water is plenty. There is also a Tropical ration for Norwegian soldiers in places like Afghanistan that is specialised for that region with a heating pouch etc.
The spoon isn't supposed to be needed. It's just there for convenience, in Norway we have a steel set of cutlery that you carry with you in the field as a standard, so the spoon isn't really needed and is mostly left in the base after we field strip the ration and bring what we want with us. If you are interested I could ship you a pre stripped package and a fresh one to show you how we would usually do it. Also the reasoning for the packaging is in part that we don't eat it so that it's super easy to spot, and most of the stuff is packaged in it's civilian packaging and looks the same in the army ration as it does in the store, so it needs to look a little more appetizing then the US MRE as I don't think those are for sale in stores. There are also a lot of different things inside, there is a large variety of protein bars, dried meat, penuts, some pizza and different stuff. In general the norwegian field rations are very good and although I haven't encountered all the rations, in my experience it is one of the better rations given by any of the NATO members.
A friend got us a bunch of Norwegian rations really cheap once which we used on hikes etc. Was so good and crazy cheap compared to buying similar stuff in outdoor-sports-style shops. Regarding fruit soup, get Swedish Blåbärssoppa (blueberry soup) formula. Great and dirt cheap. You get a ton of it for no money at all, and it’s so easy to just put in a container and add hot water. Absolutely lovely a cold day of trekking.
It is funny that he is so stupid and far behind in understanding modern things, just like a parody of American army-people that could not pay for education at American pay-schools. Kind of strange to watch for people from countries where civil education is free.
Regarding the comment on dl, we use that as a measurement in Scandinavia (and possibly elsewhere) because one of the sizes of the standard household measuring spoons is one dl (or 100 ml) in volume. As such you will often in Scandinavian recipes find the usage of dl. It is more common to use liters or ml in other contexts, however, as those are the actual SI units (ml for chemistry, liter otherwise). Other measuring spoons in Scandinavian households and recipes are typically tablespoon (15ml), teaspoon (5 ml) and "spice measurement" (1 ml); and then we also have a liter cup which usually has a cl scale on it.
*Having experienced Norways pre Drytech, Drytech testing phase and contemporary US MREs from ca 2000. Here are the differences:* - *Pre:* Quarter sized can with packed meat in called RSP and nick named "dead man in a box". Meat containing less water, but still some and packed in with a white substance just for conservation. If you eat too much of the white stuff you get sick, but its very easy to remove because its kinda like cooking butter. Said to last 50 years, eaten one that was 30 years old and it was fine. We also had something called "Cubes", which was dehydrated porridge into something that looked like a light brown medium sugar cube. You placed it in the middle of a bowl, added water or milk and wolla. Eat them as cookies however, you would\could get blockage issues. Very little trash. - *Drytech testing:* Basically what you see here. Dehydrated vacuum packed powder food. Heat up water, add and stir. The military already produced its own chocolate and since this was when they were experimenting. You only got a chocolate bar and the main dinner drytech bag, not the rest, and there were more flavors and less of them. Little trash, but not a ready concept at the time. - *US MRE in ca 1995:* Multi product separate meal in a large thick plastic bag. Meant to have 3x pr day and divided up into breakfast, lunch and dinner. Huge amount of waste, which is why Norway has these 5000 calories meals instead, aka 1x pr day or less, but the US most impressive differences was their chemical plates. You didnt need hot water. You had a chemical plate package and a meal package. You put the meal package inside the chemical plate pack and then add regular room temp water as well. This in turn causes a chemical reaction that makes atoms move allot faster and in turn create heat. 3-5min and you had a hot meal. Another cool thing, while its US "bread", they also had bread that could last up to 2 years or something. It didnt taste like crackers, they were not stale, even if they didnt taste much, but it was technically bread and I noticed they all came with a small pack of metal that could rust, oxidize all the air and thereby retain freshness.
There two ways they are packed usuallly. You can get these big green bags with three meals sticked together. One Breakfast (Oatmeal porrage, raspberry cereal etc.) one luch meal (Pasta provance, pasta bolognese etc.) and a dinner (beef stew, Cod dish etc). But you can also get the main meals singles in every variation.
Just so you know, all things norwegian outdoor stuff. Be that foodstuffs, clothing, tents, sleeping bags, boots, hunting and skiing gear etc etc.. Its all super high quality. It has to do with a few main reasons i think.. First because norway has high labor cost so it caters to the high end market.. And second norway has an amazing outdoors culture, norwegians being wayyy more active in outdoors activities then probably any other western country. Lastly the countrys extreme northern latitude and geography creates a need for things that can take a beating. Buying norwegian gear is the most solid investment you can make. Youll never be disappointed 🙏
Awesome stuff man, love a TH-camr that takes his time to actually react to stuff from small countries like my country. Would love if you checked out some more Norwegian SF, or Telemark Batallion
That main meal is perfect for winter climbing, as you want lightweight food to carry and easy to make, civilians use it all the times. The MFR was a lot worse before.
The only issue I have with the DryTech (when I was serving in Norway we never used the brand name as we had just a plain tinfoil colored bag) is that it needs hot water. I was MCT in the Balkans and when serving with the Royal Engineers they asked us why we had brought an diesel electric generator on our roof. Come lunchtime we fired it up to get some hot water. Thermos flasks? Whats that? I have eaten it with cold water on occations. Then the fat doesnt really disolve, but its food...
Drytech is the name of the company that makes the freeze-dried foods, as well as packing the ration packs. They started out as one man's idea back in the 80's, when he wanted to bring the taste of his wife's meals to the outdoor cooking scene. In 1989, the man behind the company started experimenting on careful freeze-drying in his very own garage. And from there, the company was born. The Real branding is separated into two categories. 1. Real Turmat (or Real trip-food if you translate it directly) - Sold on the civilian market. Very popular to bring along on long outdoor trips, whether it be skiing, going on a snowmobile trip, trekking in the woods, when you're out hunting etc, and you need a quick and easy meal to prepare. Most Norwegians pack something to boil water in when we are going out and about. 2. Real Field Meal - Only provided in MRE's, not available outside of military use. Has a greater selection of meals compared to the civilian counterpart.
The peach drink is actually not artificial I remember them from my time in the field we always get em from Norway and a friend who was in the military there he had a gf who worked at a packing company and she said they actually are mostly 90 non artificial
that`s true, the rapid/fast drytech tecnology makes the taste different or very strong from a natural peach(or something else) caused you keep all the taste and energy in the product, so it can taste strong if you blend it and taste it imeadiatly. drytech is all about keeping taste and energy as high as posible without loosing valueable calories in the process, to stay as rich as natural and long lasting in a vacume sealed bag
Nice mentioning of Steve. :D And yeah, much better job this time than with Estonian MRE, but you forgot to taste the curry. So, keep building this up. :) Real products can be found in retail shops for normal consumers in Nordic region. Nice dried food for hiking.
@@CombatArmsChannel Good job, you should have had GoPro with you or something. :) If Steve got over 1 mil subs by munching next to his mic, surely you can do better. ;) I remember you said that you don't mind eating bland food like others would complain, so I was a bit surprised that you this time said that you are a picky eater. I couldn't help thinking that you might not like strong flavours, which made me think that how can you manage to eat Korean food. :) But hey, picky eating is just a state of mind, a challenge that surely a soldier can overcome. The culinary world is a huge place that deserves exploration. Like in Korea there is lots of great stuff to try out, would love to visit the place one day. Just end the state of war before I come, ok? :)
army tuna is the best you can imagine.... you get heat,light and something to eat.... thats a real moral raiser. served in finish airforce`s special forces 2014... keep up the good stuff coming.
problem is that is only 1/3 of a feeld ration. most likly you cant get a full ration from the NAF, but a field ration for artick tours mad for civilian use
chris bugden They’re still essentially boil in a bag, I think the menu’s probably changed a bit, if you’re talking about having been out for a while, but I’ll say that from the current menu, a personal favourite is the Indonesian-style pork and brown rice, which is essentially a curry.
I watch a lot of videos of active or former service personnel reacting to things, and anybody trying RatPacks/MREs because it helps me greatly with my writing. (I'm working on a Sci-Fi Military novel) But I have to say, some of the channels (Especially some of the American Veterans) are ridiculously outdated, narrow-minded and arrogant. You seem like a quality, intelligent, well-grounded individual with the ability to pronounce Yorkshire properly, who drinks tea and has a great sense of humour - The mukbang thing felt like proper British sarcasm. You also share my personal attraction to Recon, which is also nice. I don't usually comment, and I almost never subscribe, but I wanted to say thank you for making good quality content and being a genuinely decent human being at the same time. Apparently it's pretty difficult!
do not fill water all the way up to the black line. it is best with a little less water. but if you have too little, you shit bricks for a week. I always have Tabasco in my bag. It always helps the taste. we get this as a night ration breakfast lunch and dinner.in Afghanistan, we had a different type but it tasted crap. too much sugar. in winter, when we ski a lot, we usually have about 100g of butter, to get extra extra calories at dinner. there will also be a separate package for us marines, since you are here so often to practice. in it there are crayons too
Love the concept but I agree with a lot of other comments. If you want this concept to stick, you’re gonna need to eat these on camera like all the other MRE channels do. We want to see reactions to foods and flavors, not labels.
Btw before you open it, there is 2 small holes at the bottom of the curry, stick your finger in them and tear the hole. It will make the meal able to stand on the ground much safer and it's easier to mix it all out with the water so you doesn't end up with dry parts. And to make it taste a little better add a few grams (about 5grams) of butter, when you pour the water into it, it makes it taste so much better. Just a few tricks I learned when I did my service 👍
I've never seen decilitres in the UK. Usually litres or millilitres. The UK is a weird mix of metric and imperial though. We buy litres of petrol/diesel, but we drive using mph and cover distances in miles. We order pints, but our bottles of soft drinks or bottled water are in litres. We refer to our height in feet and inches but measure a lot of stuff in metres and centimetres. It's weird...
All the REAL stuff you can find in Sports stores in Norway since they're marketed towards hikers. The peanut butter thing is eaten as candy in Sweden. it's actaully not sold in Norway, it's a swedish candy as it says on the packaging (Nöt Créme = Nut Creme and under it says Jordnøt = Peanut) and the package should be white not yellow... Maybe custom made for the military or something? It's probably my favorite candy from Sweden.
Nice video. How was the chicken curry? Metric system is decimalised by tenths, hence why it´s so easy compared to ancient units of sticks and stones or fractions 🤣 The decimal unit prefixes derives from Latin & Greek where deci = tenth, centi = hundreth, milli = thousandth, micro = millionth. Makes you wonder what Milli Vanilli means? On the other side of the scale deka = x10, hecto = x100, kilo = x1000, mega = x100000. Satisfying to hear that you understand the difference between America and US. Clearly you have been outside of USA and therefore understand that America, Africa nor Europe are countries 👍
The Real foodline is pretty good. I keep quite a few of them around for prepping. When they are close to expire I take them with me on a hike or eat them as dinner at work. There are breakfast and dinner packages and you can buy the meals and energybars at any sportinggoods store in Norway. We didnt have these when I was in the Army, but we have them in our national guard. The bad spoons are not really a problem because most soldier have a good spork with them and some are issued old messkits with knife, fork and spoon. Most also have a foldable cup to drink the coffee with. There should be some waterpurifying tablets in the package too so if you cant boil your water atleast it would be mostly safe. The meals are edible with just cold water from your canteen or camelback, but much better with proper hot water.
I think maybe thats the comercial kind? Atleast when I was in the army up north, the meals were all army green and not that fancy. The pack you got is the kind you can buy for expeditions and long hikes. They might have changed it since its 17yrs past since my army stint.
what interests me, are you soldiers not have cutlery in your equipment? I find it interesting that there is a spoon in every mre. Drytech is a Norwegian manufacturer of outdoor food well known in Europe. (sry, google translate, i can understand english better than speak)
The brand name "Real" is kinda bilingual. You can say it in English, or you can say it in Norwegian. The Norwegian word is pronounced a bit differently, and the meaning of the word is similar, but more like "genuine". "Real" is the main supplier of MRE to the Army but also sells civilian versions of their meals. In the Army, there are several MRE dinner menus. The one you got is just one of many.
We were on the 5th day of no sleep or food and halfway through a 60km march back to camp during a course I took in the army, when they gave us all one of those energy drink bags. We sat atop a hill an watched the sunrise as the last day of the course started, while drinking them. Was like heaven for 5 minutes. We all licked that thing clean :D
As a teenager in 1940, my father was very aware that Britain could be invaded and so he joined the merchant navy as a steward. The first couple of years he served on Norwegian ships and fruit soup was common on the menu. It was a great way to turn any wrinkly apples and dried fruit into a tasty - i guess- dessert. Curry was also a common dish in our house the - West Indian kind. Your meal pack has little reminders of great stories my father used to tell. He served right through the battle of the Atlantic, and dropped dead a couple of years ago at 95 taking the garbage out.
You got the best one, troops fight over the artic curry, it's the best Norwegian ration especially the reindeer one chicken is second best. The peanut cream with the coffee trust me you'll love it
Nothing better than spending two weeks in November eating only Drytech/Arctic field rations. Consensus with my troop is that the chicken curry is one of the better meals available. Peach is definately the best flavour energy drink, though we joke about using the chocolate bar as a makeshift weapon/hammer/tent plug when temps sink to 0 degrees celsius and lower.
Those meals are supposed to come as three meals pr 24 hours. The arctic meal is supposed to come out at 5000 calories pr 24 hours, seeing as one uses more calories during cold weather. There is a breakfast meal of cereals, but lunch and dinner is for example chicken curry, pasta, stew etc.
For operations it’s generally a good idea of opening the rations and split it in readily available, smaller packs. Some of it is for example good to have in a pocket in your plate-carrier/vest, in the top-lid of your daypack etc. One can compress the volume substantially when one split the rations.
Generally a patrol boil water for the next 24 hours and keep 24 hours of rations and hot water on one’s person/pack. Some boneheads experiment with the amount of water in the rations - less water means less shits in the field. Problem is one can get constipated..
Anyway - good stuff! The firm Drytech that produce
Real Turmat is from Tromsø, Norway.
I call them weight watchers meals, in North Pole training you'll eat two a day, and a ton of chocolate if it wasn't so dam cold it would be a great day.
Cool you make them I'm truly grateful and would love to visit and maybe give a few idea's for menu's.
"Can" get constipated? FR-stomach is a fucking medical term for god's sake.
Oh the fucking constipation, I'm never cutting down on the water in these ever again! Took me more than a year to get my bowels back in shape. 😂
"REAL" is a brand. They make civilian freezedried camping food to. It is the exact same thing but with different color on the bag.
Its also a sort of pun as it in Norwegian would mean "solid/square" as i a "solid meal" or "square meal" DryTech is the company.
You know its mostly the same. But TACTICAL
Well no shit
@@Maggi9909 It's the chewing gum that makes the difference, regular is mint, but the TACTICAL edition has mint STRAWBERRY :O
It means you shoot harder!
The military ones has more calories actually
curry can be a breakfast meal, depending on how drunk you were the previous evening.
If it's not kebab/dominos its curry 😂
I don't think it matters when you are going over the top in 2 hours :)
Or just depending on what is easily available and what you feel like eating. Many times I've eaten some of the leftovers of the previous day's dinner for breakfast because it was really good and right there for me to warm up. Other times I've ordered pizza for brunch. The possibilities are limitless and delicious once you stop thinking of certain foods as non-breakfast. Usually I just make a grilled cheese sandwhich for breakfast, though.
Literally anything you eat as your first meal is a breakfast, because it breaks your fast. Doesn't really matter what it is...
@@sandercohen3309 Very true!
On the real hard days we eat the energy drink. And I can confirm, the protein bar turns into a brick in -30 degrees celcius.
It's also pretty nice sprinkled over a snowball.
Watch out for yellow snow though.
13:40 "Okay, this is very interesting. Y'all use the metric system, but we use "ounces"". Or maybe you're the outlier, Mr America...
Hahaha still interesting regardless
@@CombatArmsChannel Regarding Decilitres though. Here at least in Norway (and I have little reason to think it'd be different in other metric countries) I'd say it's the most common measurement for liquid at least in cooking.
@@CombatArmsChannel Fun fact: The U.S., Liberia, and Myanmar are the ONLY countries in the world that haven't switched to the metric system.
@@curom6593 I generally jump from mililiters straight to liters.
@@curom6593 As a Norwegian myself, I have gotten more than a few confused looks in different European countries, when I've used deciliters. A lot of countries doesn't use it and go straight from liters to milliliters, and some that use centiliters.
"Rett i koppen" is a pun (Straight to / Dish in) the cup
The company that sells the MREs to the Norwegian army has 2 sections one for military and one for civilian the civilian is called REAL turmat(trip-food) if you go to there website you can order civilian and military MREs
Tusen tak fur matten!
One point to the corners being easy to open. Remember, these are supposed to be enjoyed in arctic conditions. In sub-zero conditions, your finger dexterity just...craps itself... So, these need to be easy to open
🇳🇴hi from norway, Nice of you too taste Norwegian MRI. Vi van buy this real food in sportshops. So we take this with us on Fishing trips, or on climbing.
Norwegian "real" mean proper, hearty etc.
Also, no self heating since that doesn't work well in -30 Celcius if anyone is curious.
Edit: We usually get three of these /day, two warm menus and a breakfast one. Have to eat it all when you burn 7-10k calories a day during winter.
And yeah, the spoons suck.
that's why we have stainless steel!
Spork!
Heaters don't work well even just near 0 degrees, always seem to take a ridiculous amount of extra time before they start up in the winter months.
@@Rikard_Nilsson The reason for this is that temperature actually relates logarithmic to thermal energy, my highschool chemistry teacher gave us a shorthand that we should think that the reaction time of a chemical reaction is multiplied by two for every ten degrees we heat something. So dropping from 20 to 0 degrees means two such steps And even an exothermic reaction like the one in heat packs happen at roughly a quarter of the pace.
I was conscript in the Norwegian army about 25 years ago. In Norway we called the field ration for RSP. I have forgotten what that mean, but we joked about it meaning:
Rester av Sprengt Personell, Translated to English it would mean something like: Rest of Blownup Personell
Reserve Strids Priviant, swine, corned beef, pork fat and peas
I'd rather punch a guy so hard in the stomach he pukes, and eat that, than eating one more can of RSP.
I have friends buying RSP cans dated like back to 1968 on military auctions, eating that shit on hikes and what not, must suffer from brain damage or something.
Those new rations though are actually quite good. And as others have pointed out, you can buy them in stores. During the Covid-19 lock down people started hiking a lot more, and it was impossible to get your hands on Real and similar brands.
@@KjetilBalstad You can buy almost RSP in all stores.. Kjøtt, Erter og Flesk,.
There was a shortage og Real.. not anymore.
@@arnefines2356 You can't replicate the true authentic flavor of 1968 RSP.
I wrote "during the lock down".
During exercises we got these drytech MRE's, but otherwise we often were delivered a trash bag of food with bread, butter, pålegg (which doesn't have any direct English translation, but its anything you put on the bread like hams and cheese) and hermetic cans. The cans tended to crush everything else and tear open all the items in the bag so the bread was barely edible and the cans were laced with butter. I dreaded every time we opened a box of Snurring, I swear that thing is recycled cafeteria mix that has been peppered to the point where you can no longer taste the original ingredients
Hey. We in Norway are proud of our field ration. One pluss for the Norwegian rations. You can eat it every day with out getting any stomach problems.
Real meal we can bay I stores. I use it every time when I go hiking or hunting.
That Rett I Koppen soup. Is great with some warm water. It's a good snack.
You need to "get this out on a tray. Nice! Hmmkay"
Haha nah I dont have the elegance to make that sound legit
I'm disappointed he never tried the curry
Same
It's not big in the US lol
@@CombatArmsChannel actually its one of the better ones from the artic rations x) fill it up with hot water up to the line on the outside of the bag, stir it upp. then wait 5 minutes.
@@CombatArmsChannel sounds like an excuse to me lol
@@zizela1 5 minutes? xD it's not completely done before like 8-10 minutes, but yeah you get desperate after 5 minutes
Those Norwegians and Estoninan packages look much fancier than the ones I had in Finnish army in 2001-2002. Nontheless everyting tastes great when you are wet and cold in the forest. And btw, well made curry is the most delicious food of all.
Here's a bit fresher pack of Finnish MRE, from 2017. Lost of consumer products, like always. th-cam.com/video/yq52TqxY-f8/w-d-xo.html That "Outdoor" brand is not great, tastes so bland. Real is far better choice IMHO.
I hear ya. The ones i remember from 2003-2004 where white/grey with blue text. Was it the same as yours?
Don't know about other branches but in the Finnish Rapid Deployment Force they gave us these Norwegian ones shown on the video.
as an conscript from 2001/2002 in norway , i can say at that time it was an experiment between the freeze dried stuff you show (3 tastes back then, Cod with white sauce, a pasta or spahetthi thing, and a third i cant even remember, so prob pretty standard) and their old A and B rations, combined with fresh bread with single use spread on, like Nutella, Jams and butter, for drinks, just sugary flavoured 1/2l mixes for our field flask., as snacks, we had a small plate of milk chocolate, a small box of raisins and a small bag of Malt candy, same thing the RAF used on longer bombing mission in WW2.
when close to base, we had 1/4 L milk carton boxes as a treat
after that i cant say what they have done ^^
In 2001-2002 the Norwegian field rations were much more bland. The company that makes most of these meals that is showed in this vid is quite recent. They make food of excellent quality for the purpose. I often get really surprised by how good food this is. It's easily good enough to eat most days, except for the price. It's much easier getting the appropriate nutrition in the field these days.
Drytech is a company that sells foods online. "Rett i koppen" is well known product in Norway that almost always includes "add boiling water". To a certain extent, that applies to most of Drytech's products as well. They where pretty good when I served in early 2000's
The Norwegian REAL Artic Field Ration comes in both breakfast/lunch options, as well as dinner.
They're bought in larger crates, containing 24 servings each crate.
They're specially designed to be used in cold weather warfare/survival, in the way that they pack a decent amount of kcal and fairly light weight.
Typically in a ration you'll find something chewy (crackers, jerky, meal bars etc), something sweet (chocolate, berries etc), something nourishing (oatmeal (breakfast), curry chicken (dinner) etc), something refreshing (energy drink, coffee etc) and some condiments (hot sauce, jam etc). They're all mixed differently, which makes sure that you'll spend a little while before you get tired of them (but you will get tired of them, really tired).
You can read more about them here; www.norwegianfoodstore.com/product/real-artic-field-ration-1300-kcal-24-pcs/
I would also like to add that the manufacturer of these rations, REAL, also makes;
REAL Turmat (outdoor meals for hiking, expeditions etc), REAL On the go (nutritious snacks for adding more to your meals), and of course the REAL Field Meals (which you're reviewing here).
You can read all about it here; realoutdoorfood.com/
Take care!
Thanks for the info! Good stuff
tusen tak!
You might want to try another pack. My personal favourites are:
Chicken tikka masala/Pulled pork/chili con carne, with Columbia coffe, dark chocolate bar, beef bar, salted peanuts, lemon drink and chewing gum.
If you carry a little chilli powder or allround spice with you, it gives the main dish just that little extra lift that it needs.
13:40 Deciliters is pretty common for cooking. Kinda like "cup" in the US system.
The brand "Rett i koppen" (Straight into the cup) is a commercial brand (TORO).
it comes in a variety of soups and instant cocoa drinks, but it is made for hot water.
All that Real Meal stuff can be bought in stores in Norway.
Take a sip of peach energy drink every time he says "pick-me-up"
Artic ration = one meal for summer and winter in Norway/Europe that only needs hot water added and where water is plenty. There is also a Tropical ration for Norwegian soldiers in places like Afghanistan that is specialised for that region with a heating pouch etc.
When MArines come to the Arctic to train i remember we called their shoes small freezers :D. No breathing, to much isolation.
How wooly were your socks?
I remember we had these self heating meals back in 1998. Curry was actually one of them I think.
The spoon isn't supposed to be needed. It's just there for convenience, in Norway we have a steel set of cutlery that you carry with you in the field as a standard, so the spoon isn't really needed and is mostly left in the base after we field strip the ration and bring what we want with us.
If you are interested I could ship you a pre stripped package and a fresh one to show you how we would usually do it.
Also the reasoning for the packaging is in part that we don't eat it so that it's super easy to spot, and most of the stuff is packaged in it's civilian packaging and looks the same in the army ration as it does in the store, so it needs to look a little more appetizing then the US MRE as I don't think those are for sale in stores.
There are also a lot of different things inside, there is a large variety of protein bars, dried meat, penuts, some pizza and different stuff. In general the norwegian field rations are very good and although I haven't encountered all the rations, in my experience it is one of the better rations given by any of the NATO members.
A friend got us a bunch of Norwegian rations really cheap once which we used on hikes etc. Was so good and crazy cheap compared to buying similar stuff in outdoor-sports-style shops.
Regarding fruit soup, get Swedish Blåbärssoppa (blueberry soup) formula. Great and dirt cheap. You get a ton of it for no money at all, and it’s so easy to just put in a container and add hot water. Absolutely lovely a cold day of trekking.
indeed, (meatsoup and chicken soup) are my favourites :D
Yeah, curries are mostly eaten as a lunch or dinner meal -- however, out in the field, anything goes
Best military related channel on TH-cam 👍 keep doin what your doin
It is funny that he is so stupid and far behind in understanding modern things, just like a parody of American army-people that could not pay for education at American pay-schools.
Kind of strange to watch for people from countries where civil education is free.
Regarding the comment on dl, we use that as a measurement in Scandinavia (and possibly elsewhere) because one of the sizes of the standard household measuring spoons is one dl (or 100 ml) in volume. As such you will often in Scandinavian recipes find the usage of dl. It is more common to use liters or ml in other contexts, however, as those are the actual SI units (ml for chemistry, liter otherwise). Other measuring spoons in Scandinavian households and recipes are typically tablespoon (15ml), teaspoon (5 ml) and "spice measurement" (1 ml); and then we also have a liter cup which usually has a cl scale on it.
Desi-liters (dl) is probably the most used unit for food prep purposes, at least in Norway
deciliter
1/10 liter
Fun(?) Fact: The nut creme is a classic candy made here in Sweden. The original one is made with hazel nuts and it's really popular. Nice video!
*Having experienced Norways pre Drytech, Drytech testing phase and contemporary US MREs from ca 2000. Here are the differences:*
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*Pre:* Quarter sized can with packed meat in called RSP and nick named "dead man in a box". Meat containing less water, but still some and packed in with a white substance just for conservation. If you eat too much of the white stuff you get sick, but its very easy to remove because its kinda like cooking butter. Said to last 50 years, eaten one that was 30 years old and it was fine. We also had something called "Cubes", which was dehydrated porridge into something that looked like a light brown medium sugar cube. You placed it in the middle of a bowl, added water or milk and wolla. Eat them as cookies however, you would\could get blockage issues. Very little trash.
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*Drytech testing:* Basically what you see here. Dehydrated vacuum packed powder food. Heat up water, add and stir. The military already produced its own chocolate and since this was when they were experimenting. You only got a chocolate bar and the main dinner drytech bag, not the rest, and there were more flavors and less of them. Little trash, but not a ready concept at the time.
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*US MRE in ca 1995:* Multi product separate meal in a large thick plastic bag. Meant to have 3x pr day and divided up into breakfast, lunch and dinner. Huge amount of waste, which is why Norway has these 5000 calories meals instead, aka 1x pr day or less, but the US most impressive differences was their chemical plates. You didnt need hot water. You had a chemical plate package and a meal package. You put the meal package inside the chemical plate pack and then add regular room temp water as well. This in turn causes a chemical reaction that makes atoms move allot faster and in turn create heat. 3-5min and you had a hot meal. Another cool thing, while its US "bread", they also had bread that could last up to 2 years or something. It didnt taste like crackers, they were not stale, even if they didnt taste much, but it was technically bread and I noticed they all came with a small pack of metal that could rust, oxidize all the air and thereby retain freshness.
There two ways they are packed usuallly. You can get these big green bags with three meals sticked together. One Breakfast (Oatmeal porrage, raspberry cereal etc.) one luch meal (Pasta provance, pasta bolognese etc.) and a dinner (beef stew, Cod dish etc). But you can also get the main meals singles in every variation.
I am from Norway an Real food is wery normal to take on a backpacking trip in norway
Everything you find in the Arctic field rations you can also find in the civilian market here in Norway
Just so you know, all things norwegian outdoor stuff. Be that foodstuffs, clothing, tents, sleeping bags, boots, hunting and skiing gear etc etc.. Its all super high quality. It has to do with a few main reasons i think.. First because norway has high labor cost so it caters to the high end market.. And second norway has an amazing outdoors culture, norwegians being wayyy more active in outdoors activities then probably any other western country. Lastly the countrys extreme northern latitude and geography creates a need for things that can take a beating.
Buying norwegian gear is the most solid investment you can make. Youll never be disappointed 🙏
there is no bad weather only bad clothes. In other words dress for the weather and be responsible for yourself
Awesome stuff man, love a TH-camr that takes his time to actually react to stuff from small countries like my country. Would love if you checked out some more Norwegian SF, or Telemark Batallion
There's no better dehydrated food than Real Turmat. Norway wins this one hands down. Thumbs up from Scotland! :)
Real makes the best civilian camping foods ever. They don't just have dinner, but they have blueberry and chocolate cereal.
Cool vid dude. I never was in the army and Im not really that interested in army stuff but this was cool man. Keep up the good work :)
That main meal is perfect for winter climbing, as you want lightweight food to carry and easy to make, civilians use it all the times. The MFR was a lot worse before.
The only issue I have with the DryTech (when I was serving in Norway we never used the brand name as we had just a plain tinfoil colored bag) is that it needs hot water. I was MCT in the Balkans and when serving with the Royal Engineers they asked us why we had brought an diesel electric generator on our roof. Come lunchtime we fired it up to get some hot water. Thermos flasks? Whats that? I have eaten it with cold water on occations. Then the fat doesnt really disolve, but its food...
This is actually a really underrated channel
My fav! My backpack contained two extra of those always. You should try the lambstew though it’s horrible.
Did you know you can put hot water in ration packs and that glue seals it, so you can warm up your toes or fingers if you got frostbites
I remember the "good" old days when we got a tin of mystery meat and lard, half a bread and a small tin of jam, and two portions of instant coffee...
Drytech is the name of the company that makes the freeze-dried foods, as well as packing the ration packs. They started out as one man's idea back in the 80's, when he wanted to bring the taste of his wife's meals to the outdoor cooking scene. In 1989, the man behind the company started experimenting on careful freeze-drying in his very own garage. And from there, the company was born.
The Real branding is separated into two categories.
1. Real Turmat (or Real trip-food if you translate it directly) - Sold on the civilian market. Very popular to bring along on long outdoor trips, whether it be skiing, going on a snowmobile trip, trekking in the woods, when you're out hunting etc, and you need a quick and easy meal to prepare. Most Norwegians pack something to boil water in when we are going out and about.
2. Real Field Meal - Only provided in MRE's, not available outside of military use. Has a greater selection of meals compared to the civilian counterpart.
Who remembers the biscuits that stop you shitting for a week? Lol, to be fair you don't want 20 something guys all shitting in the field at once lol
You can buy the main course in a Norwegian sport store, they cost the equivalent of $7 so they aren't cheap.
The peach drink is actually not artificial I remember them from my time in the field we always get em from Norway and a friend who was in the military there he had a gf who worked at a packing company and she said they actually are mostly 90 non artificial
that`s true, the rapid/fast drytech tecnology makes the taste different or very strong from a natural peach(or something else) caused you keep all the taste and energy in the product, so it can taste strong if you blend it and taste it imeadiatly. drytech is all about keeping taste and energy as high as posible without loosing valueable calories in the process, to stay as rich as natural and long lasting in a vacume sealed bag
Nice mentioning of Steve. :D And yeah, much better job this time than with Estonian MRE, but you forgot to taste the curry. So, keep building this up. :) Real products can be found in retail shops for normal consumers in Nordic region. Nice dried food for hiking.
I actually used the curry for a hike and it was dope
@@CombatArmsChannel Good job, you should have had GoPro with you or something. :) If Steve got over 1 mil subs by munching next to his mic, surely you can do better. ;)
I remember you said that you don't mind eating bland food like others would complain, so I was a bit surprised that you this time said that you are a picky eater. I couldn't help thinking that you might not like strong flavours, which made me think that how can you manage to eat Korean food. :) But hey, picky eating is just a state of mind, a challenge that surely a soldier can overcome. The culinary world is a huge place that deserves exploration. Like in Korea there is lots of great stuff to try out, would love to visit the place one day. Just end the state of war before I come, ok? :)
As a Norwegian I've got to ask, what is that longboard in the corner? I have problems finding decks with such a deep drop.
army tuna is the best you can imagine.... you get heat,light and something to eat.... thats a real moral raiser. served in finish airforce`s special forces 2014... keep up the good stuff coming.
Always excited about chewing up close 🤣🤣🤣😂
Real is my favorite brand when I go hiking. They make good stuff.
Norwegian soldiers are issued a set of knife, fork and spoon. We never used the plastic. Glad you got the curry, the cod stew is horrible.
problem is that is only 1/3 of a feeld ration. most likly you cant get a full ration from the NAF, but a field ration for artick tours mad for civilian use
Lost my shit laughing at that "Soup" pronunciation clip, LOL. Great stuff as always!
we in Norway can buy it at tour shops in Norway
My mind is blown you have never had a curry? 😂 can someone british send over a ration pack if I was in I would have sent one already
Lol better late than never, am I right
@@CombatArmsChannel it's never to late bro, you got this 😂
Used to love UK boil in a bag rations, don't know what's issued these days ( showing my age now lol)
chris bugden They’re still essentially boil in a bag, I think the menu’s probably changed a bit, if you’re talking about having been out for a while, but I’ll say that from the current menu, a personal favourite is the Indonesian-style pork and brown rice, which is essentially a curry.
I watch a lot of videos of active or former service personnel reacting to things, and anybody trying RatPacks/MREs because it helps me greatly with my writing. (I'm working on a Sci-Fi Military novel) But I have to say, some of the channels (Especially some of the American Veterans) are ridiculously outdated, narrow-minded and arrogant.
You seem like a quality, intelligent, well-grounded individual with the ability to pronounce Yorkshire properly, who drinks tea and has a great sense of humour - The mukbang thing felt like proper British sarcasm.
You also share my personal attraction to Recon, which is also nice.
I don't usually comment, and I almost never subscribe, but I wanted to say thank you for making good quality content and being a genuinely decent human being at the same time. Apparently it's pretty difficult!
I still remember the "Real" Chocolate. 60 % cocoa, and actually a really nice bar.
The countries whose soldiers never actually FIGHT have the prettiest and most thoughtful MRE's, because camping and eating is really all they do.
Lol thats not peanut butter. Thats candy. You just buy a bunch of those and shove them into your face. Really good.
do not fill water all the way up to the black line. it is best with a little less water. but if you have too little, you shit bricks for a week. I always have Tabasco in my bag. It always helps the taste. we get this as a night ration breakfast lunch and dinner.in Afghanistan, we had a different type but it tasted crap. too much sugar. in winter, when we ski a lot, we usually have about 100g of butter, to get extra extra calories at dinner. there will also be a separate package for us marines, since you are here so often to practice. in it there are crayons too
Love the concept but I agree with a lot of other comments. If you want this concept to stick, you’re gonna need to eat these on camera like all the other MRE channels do. We want to see reactions to foods and flavors, not labels.
I was being greedy and saved the curry for my hike 😩 haha but ok 🤙
Combat Arms Channel that’s understandable, again, great concept. Just trying to get you more views!
@@mastercfromhalo3 I appreciate it, Master Chief haha
Btw before you open it, there is 2 small holes at the bottom of the curry, stick your finger in them and tear the hole. It will make the meal able to stand on the ground much safer and it's easier to mix it all out with the water so you doesn't end up with dry parts. And to make it taste a little better add a few grams (about 5grams) of butter, when you pour the water into it, it makes it taste so much better. Just a few tricks I learned when I did my service 👍
@@CombatArmsChannel Start buying your MREs x2. One to review, and one for you.
we use lb’s and ounces 👍 it’s europe that uses the metric system so both
I've never seen decilitres in the UK. Usually litres or millilitres. The UK is a weird mix of metric and imperial though. We buy litres of petrol/diesel, but we drive using mph and cover distances in miles. We order pints, but our bottles of soft drinks or bottled water are in litres. We refer to our height in feet and inches but measure a lot of stuff in metres and centimetres. It's weird...
I had to convert it... Made me laugh since im Norwegian and i cant understand ft and oz etc :D Great video!
Dl is definitely a Scandinavian thing - we use Ml here in the UK, but I've seen DL a lot in Sweden as well.
All the REAL stuff you can find in Sports stores in Norway since they're marketed towards hikers. The peanut butter thing is eaten as candy in Sweden. it's actaully not sold in Norway, it's a swedish candy as it says on the packaging (Nöt Créme = Nut Creme and under it says Jordnøt = Peanut) and the package should be white not yellow... Maybe custom made for the military or something? It's probably my favorite candy from Sweden.
Swedish peanut butter in a norwegian ration ... how dare they 🤣
The Real brand's dinners can be purcahsed at most grocery stores, advertised for people that do hiking in the nature.
The cranberry bar will deffinetly freeze the fuck up When Its cold
Much love from norway
For the Estonian Ration i Recomend you do try the Stroganoff in a can, but heat it first :D and the Vanilla thing in the foil thing is also very good.
I saw that Virginia tattoo and head to sub, skal brother Semper Fi
my god i love that quote (you can sharpen them up and use them as weapons great !)
lmao norwegians use the artic field ration all year round. Also its basically exactly the same as the summer ration tho.
Next time have this as Part 1 and Part 2 would be you ACTUALLY trying/ eating rations
Im a scout in Norway And i always have a real meal with me on trips
Your channel is getting better every time! Great job!
I see the field ration has changed a bit since i was in the military back in 1990.
It's pretty recognizable from my time in 2008.
Nice video. How was the chicken curry?
Metric system is decimalised by tenths, hence why it´s so easy compared to ancient units of sticks and stones or fractions 🤣
The decimal unit prefixes derives from Latin & Greek where deci = tenth, centi = hundreth, milli = thousandth, micro = millionth. Makes you wonder what Milli Vanilli means?
On the other side of the scale deka = x10, hecto = x100, kilo = x1000, mega = x100000.
Satisfying to hear that you understand the difference between America and US. Clearly you have been outside of USA and therefore understand that America, Africa nor Europe are countries 👍
Never had curry?! What the hell happened to the Marine Corps? Lmfao!!! 🤣😂
The Real foodline is pretty good. I keep quite a few of them around for prepping. When they are close to expire I take them with me on a hike or eat them as dinner at work. There are breakfast and dinner packages and you can buy the meals and energybars at any sportinggoods store in Norway. We didnt have these when I was in the Army, but we have them in our national guard. The bad spoons are not really a problem because most soldier have a good spork with them and some are issued old messkits with knife, fork and spoon. Most also have a foldable cup to drink the coffee with. There should be some waterpurifying tablets in the package too so if you cant boil your water atleast it would be mostly safe. The meals are edible with just cold water from your canteen or camelback, but much better with proper hot water.
I think maybe thats the comercial kind? Atleast when I was in the army up north, the meals were all army green and not that fancy. The pack you got is the kind you can buy for expeditions and long hikes. They might have changed it since its 17yrs past since my army stint.
No wonder I put on so much weight in the army, I would eat the leftover MRE's in camp whenever I was bored.
Decilitre is a quite common measurement. Especially in cooking recipes and our standard measuring cup is 1 dl.
Three liquid ounces :)
what interests me, are you soldiers not have cutlery in your equipment? I find it interesting that there is a spoon in every mre. Drytech is a Norwegian manufacturer of outdoor food well known in Europe. (sry, google translate, i can understand english better than speak)
The brand name "Real" is kinda bilingual. You can say it in English, or you can say it in Norwegian. The Norwegian word is pronounced a bit differently, and the meaning of the word is similar, but more like "genuine". "Real" is the main supplier of MRE to the Army but also sells civilian versions of their meals. In the Army, there are several MRE dinner menus. The one you got is just one of many.
We were on the 5th day of no sleep or food and halfway through a 60km march back to camp during a course I took in the army, when they gave us all one of those energy drink bags. We sat atop a hill an watched the sunrise as the last day of the course started, while drinking them. Was like heaven for 5 minutes. We all licked that thing clean :D
Fjernoppklaring?
As a teenager in 1940, my father was very aware that Britain could be invaded and so he joined the merchant navy as a steward. The first couple of years he served on Norwegian ships and fruit soup was common on the menu. It was a great way to turn any wrinkly apples and dried fruit into a tasty - i guess- dessert. Curry was also a common dish in our house the - West Indian kind. Your meal pack has little reminders of great stories my father used to tell. He served right through the battle of the Atlantic, and dropped dead a couple of years ago at 95 taking the garbage out.
Should have tried the crackers with the PB
You got the best one, troops fight over the artic curry, it's the best Norwegian ration especially the reindeer one chicken is second best.
The peanut cream with the coffee trust me you'll love it
4:48
that tattoo on your left wrist looks like a WRMFZY Gypsy
You can Buy the same food in civil
Nothing better than spending two weeks in November eating only Drytech/Arctic field rations. Consensus with my troop is that the chicken curry is one of the better meals available.
Peach is definately the best flavour energy drink, though we joke about using the chocolate bar as a makeshift weapon/hammer/tent plug when temps sink to 0 degrees celsius and lower.
Actually, desiliter is a lot more common unit of measure when talking about packed beverages, like beer of sodas. Milliliters are used in healthcare.
I know that's true in mainland Europe, but in the UK we almost always just use millilitres and litres, we don't usually use centilitres or decilitres
Greetings from norway buddy