"It tastes like mothballs and old library books."

March 1, 2017 12:59 AM

A YouTuber named Steve1989 collects, eats (usually), and reviews old and obscure military rations (MREs) from around the world. Far from being stunt posts, they're more like excited unboxing videos with interesting histories. A sampling: 1944 WW2 British Special Ration Type C MRE Review, 1969 Food Packet, Survival, Abandon Aircraft Ration MRE Review, 1985 Dutch 24hr Ration MRE Review, 2015 French RCIR Ostrich & Cranberry Sauce 24 Hr Ration MRE Review [via Munchies]
posted by Room 641-A (20 comments total)

I can't imagine they were cray cray good at the time, I can only imagine what a 1960s MRE tastes like now.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:48 AM on March 1, 2017

Finally, a replacement Steve for my Steve, Don't Eat It! needs.
posted by sysinfo at 2:11 AM on March 1, 2017 [8 favorites]

My associate has been following this guy for a while. I'm always tickled by the ceremonial smoking of the aged cigarettes.
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 2:49 AM on March 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

Man, that B-3 ration video was rough. More than anything, I'm bothered by how shaky his hands are. I guess that's what happens when you spend your free time eating expired military rations?
posted by tobascodagama at 5:11 AM on March 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

"This thing is really good! This is better than fruitcake you can buy in the store! But then again, I did miss dinner, so..."

This guy is hilarious.
posted by jammy at 5:37 AM on March 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

So the munchies story addresses the pathogenic toxin question but I am pretty curious about how often he does this and what the long term health consequences might be if these items make up anything more than a trivial fraction of his diet. Even new these weren't foods that should have been regularly consumed for the long term.

As an illustrative anecdote: I worked in an emergency evacuation shelter full of nursing home residents displaced by hurrican sandy. We were supported by some pretty amazing FEMA resources (though the promised shower truck did not ever alive, it own horror story) including a truly outstanding emergency medical team. These folks came with a mobile hospital set up even though we were literally down the block from a fully functional modern hospital (they sometimes to places where literally everything for hours has been destroyed as in the case of tornadoes or rural disasters). The supply provision also included many many cases of MREs (fancy modern ones with self heating technology). The head of the medical team explicitly forbade us from cracking any of them open - no biggie since we had volunteers and community groups donating food - saying that we would hear heads popping from blood pressure issues within minutes if we did. He pulled one out of a crate and noted it had about a weeks worth of sodium in it.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 5:43 AM on March 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's hairsplitting, but only MREs are MREs. The ones the US Military has been supplying since the mid 80s. The other ones are military rations. Source: I used to buy them, I've been in the plants where they are manufactured. We've tasted every current variety. There's a display case in a conference room in this building (we have a meeting scheduled in there later) that has a Vietnam era can of peaches that's pretty swollen, we take bets on when it might explode or start leaking. The crackers are like vitamin pills, they're heavily fortified. They're salty as shit so you'll get thirsty and drink.
posted by fixedgear at 6:07 AM on March 1, 2017 [6 favorites]

This is way better than it should be.
posted by xammerboy at 6:51 AM on March 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I find these very relaxing. Been watching for months, it's my second favorite thing on YouTube.
posted by 1adam12 at 6:53 AM on March 1, 2017

It's also worth noting that military rations are intended for people who are engaged in intensive physical activity and under immense stress. It's not only acceptable but it's required that people in those situations consume thousands of calories more than someone who is not doing much to burn those kinds of calories. Many of the civilian rations are built around similar assumptions e.g., hiking, climbing, camping in cold weather.
posted by ElKevbo at 6:56 AM on March 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

There's more people like him (previously): Tasting All These Years (May 4, 2016), and A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder (September 7, 2010). The first includes YouTube videos, and both link to MREinfo, the community for trading (and tasting) old military rations.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:00 AM on March 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

(Fresh) MRE pound cake is really, really good!
posted by Room 641-A at 7:01 AM on March 1, 2017

It's like listening to Mr. Rogers, if Mr. Rogers was eating old military rations and telling us about it.
posted by HuronBob at 7:56 AM on March 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Emmymadeinjapan also periodically does ration kits, though it's not the focus of her channel.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:00 AM on March 1, 2017

MREs are not a fine wine. They're not a fine anything. Aging them won't change that.
posted by tommasz at 8:06 AM on March 1, 2017

Should I send him the ones I saved up for Y2K?
posted by ocschwar at 8:44 AM on March 1, 2017

Many people's GI tract reacts poorly to the flood of calories in an MRE.

Here is a story -- very possibly apocryphal -- about a guy who serves a dinner to his girlfriend made up of MREs, and the harsh effects it has on the poor, unsuspecting woman. (tl;dr is that she poops explosively, is badly embarrassed, and he is a swine.)
posted by wenestvedt at 8:48 AM on March 1, 2017

When I was a kid, I used to love when dad would come home from deployments and he'd give me all his C-rats. I really liked them, though some were better than others. I remember when he came back from Antarctica the last time and he brought a duffel bag nearly full with them. It was better than Halloween combined with Christmas.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:32 AM on March 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

I went hiking with a friend who's a vegetarian and who thanks to his son, who's in the UK reserve forces and gets loads of them, brought with him some US MREs (to be precise, the 2010 MRE XXX option 12, the Veggie burger with BBQ sauce meal).

We all had one, and it was one of the weirdest things I've ever eaten. Almost, but not quite, similar to food. And the flavours managed to be bland and full-on all at the same time. We didn't discuss what digestive effects it later had on us but I've no memory of anything explosive happening, which would, at that late point in the trip, have been quite helpful.

The WW2 British Ration video is excellent.
posted by dowcrag at 9:49 AM on March 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Steve is fantastic. I can't believe he's been sick as little as he has.

I bought a 3-day pack of emergency ration bars for, oh, I don't know, a flood or something, back in November. They're supposed to be nice and lemony, and I have been tempted to try one and swap it out with a Clif bar. But thanks to this thread I know I had better not do that.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:56 AM on March 1, 2017