Upon seeing the M60 gunner with the MRE, I now remember a lot of guys saying the early versions are incredibad with names such as Meal Requiring Enemas.
Upon seeing the M60 gunner with the MRE, I now remember a lot of guys saying the early versions are incredibad with names such as Meal Requiring Enemas.
Canned food is pretty much always going to taste better than freeze dried. I don't think I ever would choose the MRE over a self-packed canned meal. The concept of the MRE is no-prep meals that are disposable, but if you don't have time to spend 7min heating up a meal, you probably should not be sitting down to eat. And the disposable factor isn't really an advantage when you have to pack the contents back yourself. Weight is the primary advantage with this, but I prefer those commercial dry rations to the MRE. Maybe they fixed them by now?
When I was younger I had a few MREs that my father had (late 80's early 90's). I can't really remember liking what was in it, outside of the freeze dried fruits. Last few years I've tried some of the ones that are currently sold in the commissary, nothing freeze dried in the ones I've come across. Food seems about no different from what you'd find just grabbing some canned food (say a canned ham or canned ravioli), though replace it being in a can with it being in a vacuum sealed bag. Of course I couldn't help but laugh opening the vacuum sealed bag of the dessert to find inside a retail bag of M&Ms in it. The rather hard and tasteless crackers seem to haven't changed very much from the older MREs though, but some have flat bread instead of crackers.
MREs have come a long way. For one they're not freeze dried. They also don't require being heated to eat. And they're a lot easier to deal with than a can. You can pack two to three times as much food on you with MREs than with cans. Easy to dispose of too.
Was kind of interested in the MRE she was eating, Menu No. 17 Beef Teriyaki, so googled it up. It was on the menu for MREs for the production years 1998 to 2004. The current Menu No. 17 (or at least the 2013 run) is Maple Sausage.