“Meals Ready to Eat”: A Visual Guide to Military Rations

The most famous quip about standard U.S. military ration M.R.E.s—”Meals Ready to Eat”—is that they’re “three lies in one.” In my experience they’re often surprisingly tasty, although the massive amount of calories in each meal will stack on the pounds if you’re not humping a 100-pound pack through the muck. If you’ve never had the pleasure of consuming one of the gut-stopping meals, this fellow has documented the contents of a “Beef and Mushrooms” bag.

I’ve heard that when the military used to issue metal canteens, the expanding chemical heater in an M.R.E. could be placed inside to cause the canteen to explode, making a handy noise-maker. I have no idea if anyone ever actually did that, but it’s a nice idea.

Man, now I’m hungry for some jalapeno cheese on a cracker. There’s something about putting food inside individual wrappers that makes it twice as fun to eat.

A Guide to Eating a Delicious MRE [FraudWasteAbuse.Wordpress.com]