MREs as main food source while plane camping at OSH?

I got out of the Army in '84 before MREs were a thing, and even if they had been I pretty much never went into the field. I think the only tine I had C-rations was in basic training, and those were Vietnam era leftovers. I had two Marine sons, but they never brought any home. To date I never have had an MRE. I'm curious about them, but not curious enough to go out of my way to try them.
 
Groundpounder said:
My brother was in the Army in the late 80's-early 90's. He'd bring me home an MRE or two when he visited, which I loved. Of course I was 11 in 1990.....
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Ooofff... I'll be those were the old dark brown bag MRE's, with hot favorites like Corned Beef Hash (aka Corned Beef Trash—with a consistency of wet dog or cat food, and the smell to accompany it), Beef Stew, Scalloped Potatoes with Ham, and of course the infamous "four fingers of death," aka Beef Frankfurters.

Rumor has it that the included Chicklets chewing gum had a laxative in it to counteract whatever the hell was in the MRE that prevented what should naturally occur.
 
tsts4 said:
MREs have improved dramatically since I had my first one in 1986. IMO today they are on par with the commercial camping stuff. Anyway the real selling point for Osh would be convenience for a hot meal. For those who aren’t familiar, MREs come with a flameless ration heater that’s a pouch with magnesium, iron powder, and salt that creates an exothermic reaction when water is added. You put the entree pouch in the heater, add a little bit of water and in a few minutes it’s piping hot. So no stove needed. So if you want something quick, easy to transport, and hot MREs are just the ticket.
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A friend told me an alternate process with those:

1) Take immersion heater or contents and put into almost empty water bottle. (Contents of MRE Tabasco can also be added to water bottle. IYKYK)
2) Put cap on bottle tightly.
3) Shake bottle to ensure immersion heater contents get wet.
4) Tactically place water bottle where required. (Common locations would be in adjacent platoon or command tents, or trash cans in the vicinity of dining emplacements)
5) Observe chaos from a safe distance.
 
Flymy47 said:
A friend told me an alternate process with those:

1) Take immersion heater or contents and put into almost empty water bottle. (Contents of MRE Tabasco can also be added to water bottle. IYKYK)
2) Put cap on bottle tightly.
3) Shake bottle to ensure immersion heater contents get wet.
4) Tactically place water bottle where required. (Common locations would be in adjacent platoon or command tents, or trash cans in the vicinity of dining emplacements)
5) Observe chaos from a safe distance.
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Joe gonna Joe.
 
Flymy47 said:
Ooofff... I'll be those were the old dark brown bag MRE's, with hot favorites like Corned Beef Hash (aka Corned Beef Trash—with a consistency of wet dog or cat food, and the smell to accompany it), Beef Stew, Scalloped Potatoes with Ham, and of course the infamous "four fingers of death," aka Beef Frankfurters.
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Usually the rule as a trainee was you didn't look. Just reach in the box, grab one, and trade afterwards. Once you got to a unit, there was more room to pick and choose.
 
I take quite a few packs of trail mix and beef jerky. I also get free sandwiches for working for EAA, so that helps. Since it's just me, it's not overly expensive to eat at the vendors onsite though. I eat at Parker John's BBQ often. On one of my last days there, my friend found Teriyaki Madness, which was very good and will be on my list going forward. I've heard that the Cheese Curd taco stand is really good too. OSH is one of those places I stop worrying about eating healthy since I'm walking so much that week!
 
Lowflynjack said:
OSH is one of those places I stop worrying about eating healthy since I'm walking so much that week!
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Isn't that the truth! I was thinking I'd gain a few lbs after all the vendor/restaurant food for a week... but it looks like the tens of thousands of steps and many miles of walking every day offset the increase in beer/food related calories :)
 
My personal preference is to avoid any MRE with eggs in it :frown2::vomit: Everything else is tolerable
 
I got bored today while snacking and inadvertently recreated one of the more memorable and common MRE dishes: peanut butter and jelly on saltine crackers. Pretty damn good TBH.
 
I was talking to a former Army sniper. He said the MRE are pretty good (just avoid the vegans ones and anything with eggs).

He was in the desert, but got medically discharged after his truck got blowed up
 
Bob Noel said:
I was talking to a former Army sniper. He said the MRE are pretty good (just avoid the vegans ones and anything with eggs).

He was in the desert, but got medically discharged after his truck got blowed up
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I'm surprised the vegan ones aren't better. At least in the camping meals, the vegetarian (yes, I know vegan is something else) are usually pretty safe bets compared to trying to make things with meat proteins taste as expected.
 
Food is not scarce, at all, at Oshkosh. And if you walk around, you'll see that the there are a TON of airplane campers that have full on kitchens setup around their airplanes. Propane grills, small blackstones, in some case actual smokers. Don't be an idiot about it and nobody cares. Plus, Uber Eats/Doordash delivers anyway (drop a pin at a pedestrian gate...). Resorting to MREs feels...unnecessary.
 
I had a small propane camping grill in the S40, grilled a couple meals on it and heard no complaints.
 
I won’t philosophize on the MRE except to say Ranger Pudding is haute cuisine. A jetboil, aeropress, and dehydrated meals would be an option I would instead consider if I did not want to partake of vendor food options. If i didn’t think a jetboil was safe enough, I’d opt for the Stoke Voltaic Kettle Pot, but you’ll need a 500W portable power supply for that.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I've heard that the Cheese Curd taco stand is really good too.
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Yes! I avoided it the first couple-three years they existed because it sounded like tourist-trash overkill. Then, I finally tried it, and it's quite good and not at all the massive gut bomb I was expecting. Now, I make sure to go visit them at least once. They had brisket ones this year too which was a nice addition.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Yes! I avoided it the first couple-three years they existed because it sounded like tourist-trash overkill. Then, I finally tried it, and it's quite good and not at all the massive gut bomb I was expecting. Now, I make sure to go visit them at least once. They had brisket ones this year too which was a nice addition.
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I eyeballed the hell out of that stand every day of my stay. Maybe tomorrow, I'd say... I talked myself out of it everytime. Next year, dammit! Next year!
 
RussR said:
I do remember the non-melting chocolate bar as not being too bad, as long as you could get past wondering what kind of a "chocolate" bar doesn't melt.
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They add more wax to it.
 
I got a couple of cases to keep around as emergency food. So I also picked up some to try.

Not too bad. There is a an artic version that are just a different packaging of Mountain House freeze dried camping meals. You still need heat to boil water.

There are also the First Strike Rations that one is for one person one day with various things to cover 3 meals. I have carried them on business trips where dinner was going to be difficult. I could get 3 dinners out of one.
 
Pinecone said:
There is a an artic version that are just a different packaging of Mountain House freeze dried camping meals. You still need heat to boil water.
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I have eaten many Arctic rats in the Arctic. They are very well designed for that environment. The regular MRE's can burst and spoil if frozen, so the Arctic meals must be freeze dried. They also contain several high calorie snacks and a variety of hot beverage powders.

Water is usually not a problem in the Arctic; as long as you have fuel, there is snow to melt. If you don't have fuel of some kind, you have bigger problems.

In the real world I would not drink it, but at 20 below few things hit the spot like hot Tang.
 
Ed Haywood said:
…

In the real world I would not drink it, but at 20 below few things hit the spot like hot Tang.
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Back in college, my roommate and I made a road trip to small-town north central Kansas to watch his younger brother play football. It was 8-man, on a cold, wet, windy night. The visitor side had a bench for the team, the rest of us had to stand. I was really cold and went over to the concession trailer for something hot to drink. “Coffee?”, nope. “Hot chocolate?”, nope. “Do you have anything hot?”

“We have hot Dr Pepper.”

“Excellent, I’ll take one…wait…what?”

The kid poured me a steaming cup of hot Dr Pepper. And it was awesome.
 
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