So my dad told me I should try MRE's for our day hikes. I know nothing about them. Can you guys give me the rundown? I know I just need to try them, but are there some that are preferred and some to stay away from? Are they ok, or should I continue to buy real food and lug it around? Thanks Guys!
MRE's are heavy for the calories you get. You can do better by getting your backpacking meals from the "Prepared Food" aisle of the supermarket. Try Lipton/Knorr "Sides" or some of the dehydrated rice or potato items. Combine these with freeze-dried meat or pouch meat such as chicken or tuna and you have a light, tasty meal for one at 6 to 7 oz. Or, get Sarbar's book on freezer-bag cooking for a lot of other really good ideas. You don't need to cook them in a freezer bag (I don't) but the idea remains the same: boil water, pour it in, stir, cover and let sit, then eat.
Ditto what pika said. MRE's are heavy because they already have the water in them. As long as you can get water on the trail and don't have to carry it all, there are much lighter options.
If you are going somewhere without water, or where you have to pack in all your water, then MRE's are ok. I've certainly taken them on extended day hikes in the winter here, where I don't want to carry and entire stove and fuel setup to melt snow for water, and want a big meal.
My biggest problem with MRE's is that darn big bottle of catsup I have to bring to make them taste edible <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I should caveat that with I've only taken the Canadian military ones that someone got me a few of. I think they're pretty close to what the US ones are, not sure. same kind of deal with the heater and stuff. The shepherd's pie one was particularly good, at least to me. I've also taken some civilian commercal brand packaging of what appears to be exactly the same stuff.
I've also never served in either military, so I've never been forced to eat the same pile of 4 to 6 MRE meals every day for months on end while deployed somewhere either. So to me, at least, they didn't taste bad at all. I've never eaten an actual honest to gosh US military issue MRE. Only the Canuck one, and the commercial one.
When I was in the military,we had C rations in the can. Most of them were pretty good.I tried MREs when I first started backpacking and got them from my son-in law who was in the Marines.Some of the items weren't too bad but I did not care for most of them. I would rather live on Ramen.
One thing I don't like about MRE's is the MASSIVE amount of trash they create. Heavy plactic, and associated clutter that comes with MRE's has to be packed out makes them a pain.
Registered: 05/02/06
Posts: 208
Loc: Rock Springs, WY
what you can do is just take the food items. you do not have to carry the entire mre package. I think the mre meals are a good alternative to freeze dried or home made stuff. I like to bring some of each thing, a few mre's, some Freezerbag cooking stuff and some commercial freeze dried meals for some variety. The only mre I have gotten that was inedible was an omelet, otherwise they have all tasted ok, but i'm not very picky. I also like to pick up some of the side dish items like peanut butter, crackers, cobblers to eat on my lunch breaks.
When I was in the Army, we called C-rations "canned heartburn". There were a few classics that everyone tried to avoid such as sausage patties, hamburger patties and tuna, noodles and peas. A lot of the stuff we got was left over from the Korean conflict and was past its prime but my guess is that even in their prime they were pretty awful. Some of the stuff made starvation look like a desirable alternative. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
I've found that Hormel Compleats taste better than the MRE equivalents. You can buy the heater packs separately if that's what you want to do to heat 'em up. Otherwise you can bring a plastic baggie and soak the meal in hot water. I don't mind taking fully hydrated food on overnight hikes. Most of the time I eat them cold so I don't have to take the stove and pot.
Pika, when I was in the Navy we had a "beer day" for being out as sea for more than a month - the beer was Budweiser in the old pull-tab can! Being the mid-80's I suspect these were well past their freshness date, but then I can't vouch for the taste because I sold my two cans for $20. The stuff was so old that some of the cans had corroded through.
When I dayhike I haul my stove and pot to boil water - and make a real lunch. Last Saturday we took a 2 hour lunch at a lake and had a lazy lunch.
Or....I carry cheese, tortillas, cream cheese and an avocado. That is for the quick lunches - and make wraps. Bacon is good added. Spinach too!
You don't need to eat MRE's. Why someone would claim that is beyond me! You can carry nearly ANYTHING with you on dayhikes! All you need is an insulated way to carry it (bags of ice cubes, buried deep in your pack).
You can carry a foot long sub, bottles of beer, spinach dip, a cake. Weight isn't an issue in most cases with day hikes so live it up. I have carried tomatoes and avocados and made trail guacamole before - that was about 2 lbs of weight, but it did taste great. I have carried Greek pita bread and fresh chicken salad. You get the idea <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
If you wouldn't eat it at home, don't take it with you!
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This got me thinking... last year we did this on a group dayhike:
We do feed-alls often <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Most of us cook even on dayhikes <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> (That is my friend Dicentra cooking in the photo - she runs www.onepanwonders.com )
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Looks yummy! My wife and I always try to have a good lunch when day hiking. Our style of BP is to make a base camp and explore from there. I love to "tailgate" on a stump or rock. A shore lunch in a beautiful setting beats the best restraunt any time.
I spent 9 1/2 years as a Marine and have consumed MANY MRE's.
Thoughts.
Break them down and carry only foil packs of the items you like. You'd never find me carrying "omelet with cheese" (thankfully now done away with), but I really like the cherry nut cake and cheese spread that came with them. No matter what you do, don't bother with the cardboard crackers, the one truly foul part of every MRE.
Try them. I genuinely like many of them, and they keep getting better every decade (the menu, not the actual MRE's which are fairly toxic after more than a decade of sitting there). I really liked chicken stew, cheese tortellini, and tuna with noodles.
Remember they are pretty heavy when you transition to multi day backpacking. They are already hydrated, perhaps a plus in the desert, but heavy compared to a Mountain House Propak, which weighs half as much but provides twice the food when rehydrated.
Be ready for some constipation. You know why there is such a tiny roll of TP in an MRE? You know why there is that funny chemical smell when you first open them? Because there are chemicals in them that tend to bind up a fighting man (or woman's) intestinal tract. It bad enough to be shot at or shelled or bombed. It's worse while doing the Aztec Two-step. MRE's reduce that likelihood. It may mean you don't go for a day or two.
MRE's are better with just a smidgeon of cooking skill. There are entire cookbooks on how to make your MRE's more palatable. Quick hints are add that cheese spread packet to the entree. Cook them with a pack of ramen or ichiban noodles or a bit of minute rice. You don't have to use that whole little bottle of tobasco - half a bottle often preserves the flavor better.
MRE's are NOT a necessity. I never take them on a day hike. But I have, on occasion taken a pack for the first night of a backpacking trip and added them to ramen or rice. The taste is often not bad at all, once you get past that initial chemical smell. But on a dayhike, I'm much more likely to carry a Subway 6-inch for lunch.
Be ready for some constipation. You know why there is such a tiny roll of TP in an MRE? You know why there is that funny chemical smell when you first open them? Because there are chemicals in them that tend to bind up a fighting man (or woman's) intestinal tract. It bad enough to be shot at or shelled or bombed. It's worse while doing the Aztec Two-step. MRE's reduce that likelihood. It may mean you don't go for a day or two.
Really? YGTBSM!
I'd never thought of that being part of the design, ick.. There's a reason I like my oatmeal and almonds when hiking - I hate carrying an extra load all day!
Be ready for some constipation. You know why there is such a tiny roll of TP in an MRE? You know why there is that funny chemical smell when you first open them? Because there are chemicals in them that tend to bind up a fighting man (or woman's) intestinal tract. It bad enough to be shot at or shelled or bombed. It's worse while doing the Aztec Two-step. MRE's reduce that likelihood. It may mean you don't go for a day or two.
Really? YGTBSM!
I'd never thought of that being part of the design, ick.. There's a reason I like my oatmeal and almonds when hiking - I hate carrying an extra load all day!
I never thought of it that way, but yeah, it's a good point.
It was not uncommon for Marines to go 2-3 days between using a slit trench. If you were on the attack (especially a vehicle march), you might not be able to stop and take care of business often at all. Combine this with the fairly dirty conditions of life in the field, and you can see how diarhea could be a fairly serious problem. MRE's fight that issue.
I had the privilege of eating MREs in the desert for a year. (yeah!) Everything Bearpaw said is right on. They are designed to make you constipated. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> To add: as Bearpaw said, you must break them down. Take out the stuff you don't need. Sometimes I hike out in the desert for an overnighter. They are perfect for that. I just take the main meal, heater packet, and add whatever else I want that I don't have to cook, like cliff bars or gorp or something. Then I leave the stove, pot, fuel, and fuel cannister at home. I also take a little less toilet paper. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> For one night, and maybe even two, they can be a lot lighter and much easier. After that, it gets lighter to carry a stove and dehydrated food. They aren't dehydrated, so you are carrying water in them, but you can minimize this by only carrying the main meal.
Unless something has changed in the year since I got out, there are 24 different menus. They are split into two boxes (A and B). The A box has twelve different menus, and the B has 12 more. If you buy more than one box, make sure you don't get all A's or B's. I try and stay away from the vegetarian ones. Luckily the fingers of death have been discontinued. Iraq has helped to refresh the Military supply, so now only new ones are in circulation (in the military). My favorite is the Enchilada one with jalapeņo cheese sauce. The chili-mac one is also good. If there is a cheese packet in one, put it in the main meal for a better taste. The peanut butter was good for the first 6 months, then I got tired of it, and stayed away. The crackers suck, but the wheat bread is good. The pound cake is also really good, especially the poppy-seed one. The lemon pound cake is also good. If there is rice, then heat both the rice and the main meal at the same time, in the same heater pouch. Put the rice in the main pouch afterwards. The same goes for the oriental noodles (except you don't have to heat the noodles, just put them in the meal). The pork chop is imitation pork, so it is ok to throw to the Iraqis <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />. The beaf steak is good between the two wheat bread pieces supplied. I will add that out of the 24, some you will never like, some you will start out liking, but change after 6-7 months, and some you will start liking after 6-7 months of eating the other ones. I would say that it won't hurt to try them and see what you like. If you do this, remember that just because you don't like one, it doesn't mean you won't like another. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Good luck. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
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Not if he ate an MRE. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
I wonder if you drink contaminated water, and ate MREs if they would even each other out. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
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MRE's, to me, taste alright. Of course that depends on the entree but most I've had I would rate above average.
I recently had the opportunity to pick up a couple of the Winter (white packaging) MRE's off the fleabay. In my opinion these were much better than the regular brown packaging type. The white winter kind do not come with heating elements, I'm assuming because they would not be effective in extreme cold. I believe they are also all freeze dried, as opposed to brown - having basically canned goods in a pouch. (makes sense, you don't want a spaghetti popcycle for dinner). The last one i had was a spicey asian chicken w/rice. Tasted very good for a freeze dried meal, very comparable to the consumer freeze dried camp food if not better (maybe it was the tobasco that gave it the edge <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) fyi though, these are usually expensive, upwards of $8-10 each because they are 'rare'. Though if you think about the normal consumer camp food being $6+ for 2 servings of one entree it doesn't sound all that bad.
MRE's have a bit of novelty factor too, kind of neat to have a few if you've never had the pleasure (or displeasure). Basically my rule of thumb on MRE's is if I can get them for below $4-5 each (this includes shipping cost) I will buy them. Just have to watch out for shipping gouges. For instance I will only buy a case if the grand total, auction+shipping is less than $60. They love to charge $30 to ship these boxes, just gotta watch out.
I've alwasy wanted to try a canadian imp or some of the other countries' mre, however they are too expensive on fleabay (upwards of $20-30 each when you include shipping)
Bottom line however, making your own 'pack food' will have a higher taste:cost ratio for sure.
Here is my take on MRE's. I had never tried them on a camping trip before, and I thought I would give it a try. I purchased some through theepicenter.com. I purchased through them because they had vegetarian meals. The meals themselves were very good. The down side is the weight and price. Making your own custom meals is better. You can customize the flavors to your pallet. In my opinion, MRE's make great emergency food, but they do not belong on the trail.
I've tried the canadian version of the mre, the IMP and I can say im not a fan but at least most of the cardboard can be disposed of in the fire except for the plastic.
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