SOS was actually a family favorite (better known as Creamed Chipped Beef). My mom made it many times as an inexpensive breakfast as military pay in 60's wasn't very much, and we had to make do on a monthly commissary trip. My dad (20-year Air Force) and my uncles (all WWII and Korean War Vets) enjoyed it as a breakfast food. Nowadays I make it with ground beef (flavor and cost), instead of dried chipped beef due to cost (originally chipped beef was very cheap and didn't require refrigeration). Chipped beef is really salty and requires soaking to get rid of the excess salt (Hormel still makes it and sells it in stores).
I remember eating S.O.S. during the gulf war, they used air-dried beef which came in jars. Needless to say, it was quite disgusting. We knew we were running low on supplies when they starting serving that, along with canned beef cubes in purple gravy, also nasty, completing the nasty food they served us back then. I honestly hope they have come up with better menu choices since then.
My Uncle, Sargent Henry"Hank" Moldoch was stationed there during that time, he transferred to Fort Benning, Georgia and bought a home outside of Augusta in the late 70's, early 80's ish. He was a bit of a hard A$$.
My airbase, Tyndall AFB, Fl in the late 1970s, I was usually working on midnight shift. Mid-Rats was same as breakfast. I ate a LOT of SOS with soft fried eggs mixed in. 😎👍
My last night in the service. For lunch we had beans and weenies. Our unit was camped out in tents lined up. I was on a hill sleeping on top of an armored vehicle on top of the warm engine. Looking over a field of tents. In the middle of night it turned into a field of farts. 😅
For all WW2 vets: You suffered far too much. You deserved much better than this. Seriously. I do hope you are well as you can be. Your service is greatly appreciated and you, each one of you, will never be forgotten.
There is other UA-cam videos that say the US in WWII had the best fed military in the world during WWII. That does not mean there was not areas where the food was neither good nor plentiful. If you were a US soldier on the ground in Burma in the jungle you were at the extreme end of the whole US supply line in a theater of war that was not considered the most important. Places in the Pacific also got similar treatment. No matter where you were in WWII the military the food was repetitious.
If soldiers are not complaining about their rations, there is something wrong. As much as WWII C and K rations were complained about they were prized fortunes of war for German troops because they were better than their rations.
My stepfather would occassionally cook creamed chipped beef on toast ( S. O . S . ) on the weekend . He would sometimes substitute sausage instead of the creamed chipped beef .
Good either way. In my time, chow halls were just resorting to ground beef, which has little of the flavor you would even eat Creamed Chipped Beast for.
Ours in the US comes in rectangular cans with a "Key" on its side used to open the can , most of it was made in South America , Uruguay , Argentina , & Brazil . We keep cases of "Corned Beef" , SPAM , Chipped Beef , Tuna , chicken in cans , sardines , cans of Government Beef & Pork , other canned meats , and peanut butter on hand at all times . This is most of our protein we keep squirreled away for hard times like we are going through right now . We do have fresh fish and "critters" if needed 👍 🤬"F" the WEF & "F" J B 🤬
I wish we had gotten that option. We would have to sit at the dinner table until we ate every bite (thank God for our Cocker Spaniel, Socks). My sister and I would sometimes be at the table for hours. Only time I remember her throwing in the towel had been one time Daddy was out of town on a business trip and she had tried to introduce us to Lima Beans. None of us would eat them. All four of us sat staring at the bowl of lima beans at the table for around an hour. Then the TV was turned off and we were sent into the kitchen to continue staring at our plates until we all finished the entire bowl. After about another hour and a half, one of my younger brothers asked permission to go to the bathroom. As soon as he walked out, my sister and I dumped our beans into his bowl and told Mother we had finished ours. Then my little brother came back into the kitchen, saw how his lima beans had multiplied while he was gone, and started screaming and crying, and Mother just gave up on lima beans. She never tried to make us eat them again.
On desert survival training in special forces, you got nothing! You were dumped in the desert for 1 wk eating anything you can find (scorpions, snakes, lizards, cactus, etc.) These foods would have been a delicacy. You'd be surprised what you can eat in adverse conditions. 👍👍👍
I joined the U. S. Navy in 1984 and whenever I ate the food from the chow hall ( "galley" ) , I passed gas nearly everyday that I was in boot camp . Guys that marched behind me hated me because of this .
I was in the Navy 1980-1986 as an Electronic Tech. Many of our Mess Cranks were Filipinos, and they liked to curry everything. Put me off curry the next twenty years, until I tried some chicken curry at a local Indian eatery. Onboard ship, we occasionally had "Surf&Turf", steak and lobstertail. I'd always trade my lobster for another steak. I love most seafood, including crab, but never liked lobster.
Yep, I had that same problem while in bootcamp at great lakes. Also it seemed with the Filipino cooks rice was served everyday on the mess decks no matter what ship you were on.
I'm just guessing this guy and his bad AI program have never met Steve1980Mreinfo. Edit: MCIs and K rats stopped being issued in the regular military 1980. Reserves, National Guard units and some college ROTC programs were given what remained once the first gen MREs started reaching the regular military.
Not surprised, in times of war many unfortunate slips in supplies occur. Many a blind eye is cast upon the world of supply, traffic, and transport. It's the perfect situation for skimming, graft, and chicanery
Has always happened in every war. War profiteers reigned supreme. And soldiers were told to shut uo if they complained. Even in peacetime, grifters made money cheating soldiers and marines and sailors.
In the C-rats, I like the Beenie Weenies the best. They weren't bad cold. And they always had the pound cake with them. Plus, almost always had a P-38 too.
The MRE version is proof that the Government can screw up anything. Instead of just putting the food in a pouch, some genius decided to package the beans and weenies separately. The weenies became infamous as the 4 fingers of death. And the attempt to replicate chopped ham & eggs gave us the Vomelette.
My first hitch was USAF 1976-1980, during which time I had C-rats a couple times. In my secong hitch - US Navy 1980-1986 - I again had C-rats a couple times. I didn't have MREs until much later as a civilian, when I ordered them online.
God Bless You . I was in the navy from 1985 to 1995 , Operations Specialist Second Class( Radar Operator ) on a DDG and a CG . In my day the cooks were rated Mess Management Specialists . There was always some chow available on the mess deck 24/7 inport and underway . There was always a coffee mess , tea bags , hot water dispenser , cold milk , a toaster with bread and butter , peanut butter and jelly , and some fresh fruit . My favorite meal was MidRats eaten before standing the Balls to Seven watch in CIC . Sometimes we would catch the night baker making cinnamon rolls and grab a few before breakfast was rang to the crew .
@@kevinmoore2929 i picked this screen name before i joined, i thought i was going to the army , went navy instead. and most of my works are branded with this username so no i cant change it
I have always loved SOS and I still do! I like the chipped beef version but it is impossible to find where I live. I use ground beef and make it often.
During WWII the U.S. sent large quantities of SPAM to the Soviet Union through Lend-Lease. Often being short of food, the Soviet soldiers loved it. I remember reading the memoir of a WWII Soviet artilleryman. He talked about how much they loved eating SPAM with bread and their daily ration of vodka.
I still eat SOS. The recipe taught to me by my WW2 veteran father who served in the South Pacific, so I'm sure he ate a lot of it. Whenever I feel the need of some comfort food I go get the frozen version.
Don't you dare badmouth SOS! My dad was a cook in the Air corps during World War II and we ate SOS frequently as kids and enjoyed it immensely. I still do even though it's hard to find the chick beef.
I loved the ham and eggs C- rats that most folks didn't. Same with the lima beans. Fruit cocktail was for me a trade away item. The little packs of smokes were a nice thing too. The little round chocolate bars with the rice crispys in them I enjoyed more than those huge chunks of what was supposed to be fudge. All in all it could have been much worse.
Early in my career in the USAF, 1978-90, we had C-Rations in the field. One of them was Beef and Potatoes...AKA boiled Corned beef with potatoes. It was so starchy and salty that you had to heat it up to eat it. If you didn't you had a pasty film in your mouth for hours or until you drank something hot to break it up. We also had A-Rations, which were a little better out in the field. The new MREs were not much better either.
My dad was a navy cook during WWII so we kids got a lot of the odd meals. SOS was actually good but one Sunday we got some inedible greenish eggs! We had to revolt over that one.
Most of my ship's cooks ("mess cranks") were Filipino, but we had one short fat White Guy. He was a master at baking, we loved the fresh baked bread when the storebought stuff ran out a couple weeks at sea. He made great pizzas too.
I had an older dad (am 'only' 56, he'd have been 103 this year). He served in WWII US Army Air Corp. He was stationed in London, and had been decorated. He was a navigator on the medium sized bombers that flew out over Berlin, and bombed it. He really did not talk about it much if at all and after WWII he served state side in Korea. Fortunately he loved food, many foods and could have Eastern European tastes, which was good, because his mom was a dairy chef, and lived with us. She could make things that might be frightening taste amazing. He was not averse to things like eating an onion. Like it was an apple. Or foods that were incredibly spicy at the time. He had mentioned shit on a shingle, but had not called it by the 's' word. We did not eat that at home. By the time I knew him I believe I heard him say ONE curse word. He was on the phone when I was about seven and my 'cousin' had just died in his very early twenties of of all things testicular (I had been told it was leukemia) cancer. I did not know until I was in my later thirties, and long after he had passed (young, 1980. Sudden) that in Korea he had been instructing his fellow soldiers in how to use their weapons, and had essentially been doing the role of his service (not sure if he'd moved on in that one to some other branch within the army) of, essentially, gunny. It was not that he did not know HOW to curse. Certainly is not as if he'd not have been very very good at it. But he never did it around us by the time I was born. He left that behind. I would so love to know though about what he had been able to get. I know that rationing in the UK was fierce then, and can be why we assume the Brits do not know what good food is (we had a great deal of experience with it as very narrow rationing!) I also know he'd have gotten honestly the best of the best options available at the time as a 'fly boy', as they could be treated very well. As usual I wish I could ask him, though he'd probably not have answered. Also found out later he'd been essentially running 'nylons and chocolate bars'. Left whatever he made to a British family. They made it hard to leave with it.
I still love SOS and make it often. I once took a Navy life raft survival biscuit and put it in water. Thing expanded 10x it's original size, like one of those novelty dollar bill sponges!
Let's see you never talked about spam you never opened a can of spam you did not eat a Spam sandwich in front of my dad spam was a subject you did not talk about. The servicemen got spam, the other servicemen were eating steak.
When i was in the army back in the 70's, SOS was made with ground beef instead of chipped. I still make it this way today. Sometimes, my late wife would serve it in my old mess kit on veterans day. lol
supplying troops on the battlefield is a challenging task, not only do you need to transport supplies, you also have to prepare the food, another challenge that was present even during the 2 world wars was the fact that food needed to be edible for long periods of time and not spoil quickly in harsh environments which is why canned foods were so heavily used as rations during the world wars
Every late spring I'll plunder my garden for nettles to turn into soup served with plenty of bacon and fresh baked bread. I do leave some for the butterfly larvae, though. And as for nutella in danish ration: They're back, baby. Along with real rye bread! Jacob Haugaard also promised you'd always have the wind in your back when bicycling.
My father was in the Medical Service Corps during WWII, stationed at that facility at the University of Chicago. They had shown me their "Guinea Pig" licenses. For all the meals that made it out to the troops, there were many others which were so bad they were not used. The people who worked at the Nutrition Labs were the taste testers. Mother said it was hard to believe how ghastly some of the food items were that they had to eat.
My grandfather was in the war. He personally loved S.O.S. he made it a few times. The way they made it was two variations, one with ground beef and the other with dried chipped beef. I personally preferred the chipped beef version. It's a meal I still make occasionally and remember my grandfather.
Interesting history, but I have a suggestion for the video - I would leave out the clips of modern soldiers except for when they are specifically mentioned. The clips that were in context of their history were perfect, but then it constantly kept shifting to pictures and videos of modern soldiers while talking about world war II. I found it to be a little off-putting and it broke up my concentration of what was being said. Stick with photos of the time period and people being discussed, and I think it would be a lot better.
I serverd in the US Navy and then the US Army. I Loved Navy and Army SOS, and I STILL make SOS to this day. I am PA Dutch and I never heard it called anything other than SOS or Chipped Beef and Gravy on Toast. It can also be made with ground beef, ground pork, or pork sausage.
An interesting outgrowth of all these unusual meals: many of them got adapted for the food eaten by astronauts during the space program on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the 1960's. But it wasn't until the 1970's when larger Earth-orbiting space stations like US Skylab and the Russian Salyut that they could install heating ovens and electrical refrigerators to dramatically increase the variety of food available on space flights.
During the war in Vietnam US Army Long Range Rcon Patrols were given freeze dried foods like the ones mountain house makes now. Light in weight and easy to carry they used water to reconstruct the meal, if water was scarce, they could be consumed in the dry state.
I'm beginning to think that you are not ever in the military. Because so many of the things you're talking about here were actually very good. After my years of service I actually went to Army surplus stores looking for C rations just to introduce my kids to the stuff that we ate in Vietnam.
You could couple this with a feature on food civilians had to eat during wartime, it was after WW2 but there was fish from South Africa called snook, which was absolutely horrible apparently.
Cream chipped beef on toast 😂😂😂 In my Dad's day on aircraft carriers before, during and after Korea, He fondly recalled this as "Puke on a running board"! Hahaha 😂
I'm told the modern descendant, the "tropical chocolate" is better tasting but about as easy to chew as a brick, unless carried about on an Iraqi summer day. You have to whittle shavings off it to get it down to where you can eat it, or melt it in your coffee.
Im from Maryland and we still eat SOS or "Chipped beef on toast" on a regular basis , I have 3 jars of unopened "Chipped beef" in the cupboard right now and need to re-stock soon 👍 ❤
SOS is good on toast or a biscuit. Spam goes good with rice or scrambled eggs. Some of the old C rations like the ham and Lima beans not that great but most not that bad if you can warm them up.
Well there's quite a few soldiers that lived into there late 80's to there late 90's even going into there 100's,I don't know many people these days making it past 70,yes there are some but not many.. It makes you think..Have a blessed day & Take care 🤘🏻☮🤘🏻☮
We do hamburger gravy instead of chipped beef. Delicious with eggs and grits, hash browns, or rice. Great breakfast if you'll be burning a lot of calories on a hike or something.
SOS is still served in the US military today. Personally, i like it. My mother used to make this from time to time. Over toast, very tasty. In fact, i have some frozen SOS in the freezer as i type this.
When I was in the US Army, I would have wished the SOS was chipped beef, instead it was ground sausage in that white sauce. My mother used to make the chipped beef one the only issue with it is it the meat used had a lot of salt in it and that dominates the taste. The sausage version was on the greasy side. The C-rations 1970-1973 were all OK if the main course was heated. The issues are I was in Germany where it is cold, and we were not allowed to build a fire to heat them. Spaghetti and meat balls in the winter cold is like eating greasy four dough, near the same with beans and meatballs which were on the greasy side. Any of them that had a lot of grease in them would make your stomach uneasy if eaten cold. I was fortunate in that the C-ration meals were only for lunch/one meal a day. That is not the same as having to eat C-rations every day for all meals for months on end when there was 12 different meals.
During my time in the US Army 78-90, we had wonderful C-rats. Ham and lima beans or ham and mother*uckers or beef stew or Alpo. Ham and eggs or puke in a can. The nicknames kinda give you an idea how tasty they were. Still can't eat Dinty Moore stew and it's been close to 30 years later. Cheers
Aren’t you surprised to know about these brutal foods soliders had to eat in war? Please share your thoughts 💭
SOS was actually a family favorite (better known as Creamed Chipped Beef). My mom made it many times as an inexpensive breakfast as military pay in 60's wasn't very much, and we had to make do on a monthly commissary trip. My dad (20-year Air Force) and my uncles (all WWII and Korean War Vets) enjoyed it as a breakfast food. Nowadays I make it with ground beef (flavor and cost), instead of dried chipped beef due to cost (originally chipped beef was very cheap and didn't require refrigeration). Chipped beef is really salty and requires soaking to get rid of the excess salt (Hormel still makes it and sells it in stores).
@@marks1638😊😊😊
@@marks1638 Ground beef in it is "Marine SOS", BTW.
I remember eating S.O.S. during the gulf war, they used air-dried beef which came in jars. Needless to say, it was quite disgusting. We knew we were running low on supplies when they starting serving that, along with canned beef cubes in purple gravy, also nasty, completing the nasty food they served us back then. I honestly hope they have come up with better menu choices since then.
@@marks1638h
My family and I used to eat Chipped Beef on Toast all the time. It was so good!
Its still common diner food here in Pa
I'm planning on making it soon but with thinly sliced beef sandwich meat and snow peas (AFB Brat). Good Sir.
Despite the uncouth name, SOS was delicious.
❤I agree mama made it perfectly my army father,love this sturr.i still eat the corn meat.
I love SOS!
We got plenty SOS served to at Ft. Bragg . I was there 1974-76 . Instead of chipped beef the Mess Cooks would use Hamburger, Good stuff Maynard.
In the Army ‘61 - ‘64, I loved S.O.S. and it was always made with chopped (hamburger) meat.
My Uncle, Sargent Henry"Hank" Moldoch was stationed there during that time, he transferred to Fort Benning, Georgia and bought a home outside of Augusta in the late 70's, early 80's ish. He was a bit of a hard A$$.
My airbase, Tyndall AFB, Fl in the late 1970s, I was usually working on midnight shift. Mid-Rats was same as breakfast. I ate a LOT of SOS with soft fried eggs mixed in. 😎👍
Maynard sez: oyez! Good stuff fer sure!
Sausage gravy on biscuits
My last night in the service. For lunch we had beans and weenies. Our unit was camped out in tents lined up. I was on a hill sleeping on top of an armored vehicle on top of the warm engine. Looking over a field of tents. In the middle of night it turned into a field of farts. 😅
Good old memories…. Right
For all WW2 vets: You suffered far too much. You deserved much better than this. Seriously. I do hope you are well as you can be. Your service is greatly appreciated and you, each one of you, will never be forgotten.
There is other UA-cam videos that say the US in WWII had the best fed military in the world during WWII. That does not mean there was not areas where the food was neither good nor plentiful. If you were a US soldier on the ground in Burma in the jungle you were at the extreme end of the whole US supply line in a theater of war that was not considered the most important. Places in the Pacific also got similar treatment. No matter where you were in WWII the military the food was repetitious.
If soldiers are not complaining about their rations, there is something wrong. As much as WWII C and K rations were complained about they were prized fortunes of war for German troops because they were better than their rations.
My stepfather would occassionally cook creamed chipped beef on toast ( S. O . S . ) on the weekend .
He would sometimes substitute sausage instead of the creamed chipped beef .
Good either way. In my time, chow halls were just resorting to ground beef, which has little of the flavor you would even eat Creamed Chipped Beast for.
Corned Beef in Britain has always come in square cans,love it😊
Ours in the US comes in rectangular cans with a "Key" on its side used to open the can , most of it was made in South America , Uruguay , Argentina , & Brazil . We keep cases of "Corned Beef" , SPAM , Chipped Beef , Tuna , chicken in cans , sardines , cans of Government Beef & Pork , other canned meats , and peanut butter on hand at all times . This is most of our protein we keep squirreled away for hard times like we are going through right now . We do have fresh fish and "critters" if needed 👍 🤬"F" the WEF & "F" J B 🤬
That's upgraded Spam with culture...
My grandpa told me that during his time in Germany in 1944-1945 they ate mostly marmalade and bread. Everything tasted like engine oil.
chipped beef gravy on toast is awesome actually
I still like it! 😎👍
Shit on a shingle. Love it !
My mom's dad ate it "over there" during WW1. She made it using tuna. Tuna on toast. Damn good.
SPAM does not belong on this list. SPAM is terrific.
SPAM is the national food of Hawaii 🏝
SPAM Rocks! And I am not Hawaiian.
I love SPAM, and I'm a native Floridian. 😊
Spam tasted a lot better when I was a kid,did they change the recipe or did I simply grew up?
This was war time spam
Not the current spam
#9 Spam was Like Steak in a Can.
My grandfather was cook and joined the army in 36-37.
He never would allow spam in his house or hunting camp
My father was given so much Spam while in the Navy during WWII that he would not let me stop to visit the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota.
Not was..still is..
@@Jimmykingma Touche' (smile)
Mom, [who'd served in the USMC]
had 2 choices @ mealtime: "Take it or leave it"
When my Sister, on our later Sunday dinner with our parents, would complain, Dad would say, "Burger King is down the road!" 😅
Burgers or meatloaf
Burgers or hamburger steak
Burgers or hamburger helper
I wish we had gotten that option. We would have to sit at the dinner table until we ate every bite (thank God for our Cocker Spaniel, Socks). My sister and I would sometimes be at the table for hours. Only time I remember her throwing in the towel had been one time Daddy was out of town on a business trip and she had tried to introduce us to Lima Beans. None of us would eat them. All four of us sat staring at the bowl of lima beans at the table for around an hour. Then the TV was turned off and we were sent into the kitchen to continue staring at our plates until we all finished the entire bowl. After about another hour and a half, one of my younger brothers asked permission to go to the bathroom. As soon as he walked out, my sister and I dumped our beans into his bowl and told Mother we had finished ours. Then my little brother came back into the kitchen, saw how his lima beans had multiplied while he was gone, and started screaming and crying, and Mother just gave up on lima beans. She never tried to make us eat them again.
It was the same thing with my dad, whom had served in military 21 years across 2 branches. Specifically: Navy and Army
@@tomhenry897 Burgers or chili?
Fried Spam an eggs is good eating. I love creamed chipped beef, I can eat that stuff by the gallon.
Thanks for sharing!
Steve1989MREInfo enters the chat
Gotta love that omlette
Nice hiss
@@karlsmith2570 Let's get this out on the tray..Nice!
Spam makes the best fried rice
Bloomin' Spam too!
I made a SPAM casserole two weeks ago just to see how it would come out. Pretty good if I do say so myself.
I love sliced SPAMwiches. 😎👍
@@lancerevell5979 what's not to love? I've been enjoying them since lunchtime @ grade school.😃
Bully beef and rice is still one of my favorites!
On desert survival training in special forces, you got nothing! You were dumped in the desert for 1 wk eating anything you can find (scorpions, snakes, lizards, cactus, etc.) These foods would have been a delicacy. You'd be surprised what you can eat in adverse conditions. 👍👍👍
you learn that water is more important than burgers.
SERE school too!
Snake actually test pretty good
I joined the U. S. Navy in 1984 and whenever I ate the food from the chow hall ( "galley" ) , I passed gas nearly
everyday that I was in boot camp . Guys that marched behind me hated me because of this .
I was in the Navy 1980-1986 as an Electronic Tech. Many of our Mess Cranks were Filipinos, and they liked to curry everything. Put me off curry the next twenty years, until I tried some chicken curry at a local Indian eatery.
Onboard ship, we occasionally had "Surf&Turf", steak and lobstertail. I'd always trade my lobster for another steak. I love most seafood, including crab, but never liked lobster.
Yep, I had that same problem while in bootcamp at great lakes. Also it seemed with the Filipino cooks rice was served everyday on the mess decks no matter what ship you were on.
@@0159ralph I gain 25lbs at Great Lakes! My dress blues did not fit at graduation!
Didn't they put salt Peter I to your mashed potatoes? That was the rumor when I was in the army.
I'm just guessing this guy and his bad AI program have never met Steve1980Mreinfo.
Edit: MCIs and K rats stopped being issued in the regular military 1980. Reserves, National Guard units and some college ROTC programs were given what remained once the first gen MREs started reaching the regular military.
It's steve89
Not surprised, in times of war many unfortunate slips in supplies occur. Many a blind eye is cast upon the world of supply, traffic, and transport.
It's the perfect situation for skimming, graft, and chicanery
Has always happened in every war. War profiteers reigned supreme. And soldiers were told to shut uo if they complained. Even in peacetime, grifters made money cheating soldiers and marines and sailors.
SPAM is great when you put it under the oven broiler or fry it and have it with scrambled eggs.
Makes excellent sandwiches.
@@lancerevell5979 So easy to make and yet so good.🤩
Way to salty
@@johncronin5311 There's always Low-Sodium Spam. A pity my Mom (low salt diet) didn't live to see it.
In the C-rats, I like the Beenie Weenies the best. They weren't bad cold. And they always had the pound cake with them. Plus, almost always had a P-38 too.
Don't forget the John Wayne bar you could trade a guy or off his wife or mother for one😂😂
Still have my first P-38. Loved the pound cake and beans and mother F'ers hahaha 😂.
Beans and Baby Dicks or Beans and Balls were the two largest, half-palatable MCIs. I liked the tuna or the ham slices myself.
Pound cake and peaches!
The MRE version is proof that the Government can screw up anything. Instead of just putting the food in a pouch, some genius decided to package the beans and weenies separately. The weenies became infamous as the 4 fingers of death. And the attempt to replicate chopped ham & eggs gave us the Vomelette.
MRES came out in the early 1980's (1981) not 1958. They were in a dark brown bag.
My first hitch was USAF 1976-1980, during which time I had C-rats a couple times. In my secong hitch - US Navy 1980-1986 - I again had C-rats a couple times. I didn't have MREs until much later as a civilian, when I ordered them online.
Meals Rejected by Ethnicians.
And even the dog wouldn't eat the beef patty 😂😂😂
@@timhusk2913 Reminds me of the old quip "look what the cat drug in and the dog wouldn't eat".
@@timhusk2913 Depended on how hungry you were.
I ain’t gonna lie. SOS is good if you make it right all you need is ground beef, gravy, and bread.
Potato bread is still sold in grocery stores. I like it's taste and texture.
Potato bread or Scottish potato scones or Irish potato farLs are delicious
The British stew is pronounced Makon-a-kee, as in the Scottish.
i feel so spoiled.in the navy i had access to steaks, pizza, lobster , ice cream bar, and soo on . i was a culinary specialist
God Bless You . I was in the navy from 1985 to 1995 , Operations Specialist Second Class( Radar Operator ) on a DDG and a CG . In my day the cooks were rated Mess Management Specialists . There was always some chow available on the mess deck 24/7 inport and underway . There was always a coffee mess , tea bags , hot water dispenser , cold milk , a toaster with bread and butter , peanut butter and jelly , and some fresh fruit . My favorite meal was MidRats eaten before standing the Balls to Seven watch in CIC . Sometimes we would catch the night baker making cinnamon rolls and grab a few before breakfast was rang to the crew .
@victorwaddell6530 my ship was the uss America. I been on it since 2016-2018. I been in the navy from 2012 to 2018
Hence the reason the Navy and the Air Farce get a metric ton of crap.
@@Y2JArmyofficialmight want to change that screen name then.
@@kevinmoore2929 i picked this screen name before i joined, i thought i was going to the army , went navy instead. and most of my works are branded with this username so no i cant change it
I have always loved SOS and I still do! I like the chipped beef version but it is impossible to find where I live. I use ground beef and make it often.
It's so good!
Hormel sells dried beef online.
Go with the Hormel. And you will have to fix it yourself on a stovetop.
During WWII the U.S. sent large quantities of SPAM to the Soviet Union through Lend-Lease. Often being short of food, the Soviet soldiers loved it. I remember reading the memoir of a WWII Soviet artilleryman. He talked about how much they loved eating SPAM with bread and their daily ration of vodka.
Thanks for sharing 😊
In my hometown of 1000 people. In the once a week paper. They post the weekly school lunch menu. And it says. Thursday- S.O.S.
I still eat SOS. The recipe taught to me by my WW2 veteran father who served in the South Pacific, so I'm sure he ate a lot of it. Whenever I feel the need of some comfort food I go get the frozen version.
Don't you dare badmouth SOS! My dad was a cook in the Air corps during World War II and we ate SOS frequently as kids and enjoyed it immensely. I still do even though it's hard to find the chick beef.
Respect your opinion
Armour Sliced Dried Beef available at most groceries. It's salt cured so do not add salt to the dish.
Budae jjigae translates to "army base stew" in English> It's excellent, especially with glasses of beer and soju late at night.
Thanks 👍 Good video. I've had quite a few of the items you covered.
Thanks for appreciating 😊
I loved the ham and eggs C- rats that most folks didn't. Same with the lima beans. Fruit cocktail was for me a trade away item. The little packs of smokes were a nice thing too. The little round chocolate bars with the rice crispys in them I enjoyed more than those huge chunks of what was supposed to be fudge. All in all it could have been much worse.
In the Marines, 'Ham and Mofo's' C-Rats were bad juju! Mentioning the meal by the 'real' name would impend doom.
@@rossbabcock3790 We used to give them to the 'indigenous' personnel......😝
Being a Southerner, I grew up eating lima beans/butter beans and ham. So "Ham&Mofos" hold no terrors for me. 😊
@@lancerevell5979 Mississippi here so may be something to that. lol
C-rat ham n eggs were good even if the eggs had a green tinge. Boneless chicken was good also
Why do you seem to find horse meat so odd? Some of the finest steaks that I have ever eaten have been horse, and they are every bit as good in a stew.
Yup, lighter than beef.
Many American peoo ooo ole love horses ( we watched lots of Westerns) and would never eat a “pet” animal!
Yeah, horse meat was rather common up until WWII. Cavalry and cowboys would often shoot and eat horses that got injured.
@@conniecrawford5231 Dogs and cats are staples, if not delicacies in many cultures!
Early in my career in the USAF, 1978-90, we had C-Rations in the field. One of them was Beef and Potatoes...AKA boiled Corned beef with potatoes. It was so starchy and salty that you had to heat it up to eat it. If you didn't you had a pasty film in your mouth for hours or until you drank something hot to break it up. We also had A-Rations, which were a little better out in the field. The new MREs were not much better either.
My dad was in the Navy, do you know what turds on tar paper is, S O S but the toast was burned.
My dad was a navy cook during WWII so we kids got a lot of the odd meals. SOS was actually good but one Sunday we got some inedible greenish eggs! We had to revolt over that one.
Most of my ship's cooks ("mess cranks") were Filipino, but we had one short fat White Guy. He was a master at baking, we loved the fresh baked bread when the storebought stuff ran out a couple weeks at sea. He made great pizzas too.
I had an older dad (am 'only' 56, he'd have been 103 this year). He served in WWII US Army Air Corp. He was stationed in London, and had been decorated. He was a navigator on the medium sized bombers that flew out over Berlin, and bombed it. He really did not talk about it much if at all and after WWII he served state side in Korea. Fortunately he loved food, many foods and could have Eastern European tastes, which was good, because his mom was a dairy chef, and lived with us. She could make things that might be frightening taste amazing. He was not averse to things like eating an onion. Like it was an apple. Or foods that were incredibly spicy at the time. He had mentioned shit on a shingle, but had not called it by the 's' word. We did not eat that at home. By the time I knew him I believe I heard him say ONE curse word. He was on the phone when I was about seven and my 'cousin' had just died in his very early twenties of of all things testicular (I had been told it was leukemia) cancer. I did not know until I was in my later thirties, and long after he had passed (young, 1980. Sudden) that in Korea he had been instructing his fellow soldiers in how to use their weapons, and had essentially been doing the role of his service (not sure if he'd moved on in that one to some other branch within the army) of, essentially, gunny. It was not that he did not know HOW to curse. Certainly is not as if he'd not have been very very good at it. But he never did it around us by the time I was born. He left that behind. I would so love to know though about what he had been able to get. I know that rationing in the UK was fierce then, and can be why we assume the Brits do not know what good food is (we had a great deal of experience with it as very narrow rationing!) I also know he'd have gotten honestly the best of the best options available at the time as a 'fly boy', as they could be treated very well. As usual I wish I could ask him, though he'd probably not have answered. Also found out later he'd been essentially running 'nylons and chocolate bars'. Left whatever he made to a British family. They made it hard to leave with it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
@@VintageTVShows Oh you got it! Thank you for posting 😀
Thanks for the very interesting post ....
BEST CARDBOARD THAT I HAVE EVER EATEN!
I would have been disappointed if SPAM and hard tack had been omitted from your list.
SOS on toasted raisin bread is super!
Hey, I like SOS!
It's best eaten on a cold winter night.
I still love SOS and make it often.
I once took a Navy life raft survival biscuit and put it in water. Thing expanded 10x it's original size, like one of those novelty dollar bill sponges!
This isn't just a WW2 video.
Though, a lot of these have origins in WWII rations
I honestly thought Hard Tack wasn't eaten after the U.S. Civil War.
German troops called them "Panzer Plates". 😊
@@lancerevell5979 Ah, I like that term.
Also "Panzer Waffles."
As a US veteran, I'd gripe about the "food" we'd be given. But. In all honesty. "Something approaching foood" was better than nothing
Let's see you never talked about spam you never opened a can of spam you did not eat a Spam sandwich in front of my dad spam was a subject you did not talk about. The servicemen got spam, the other servicemen were eating steak.
When i was in the army back in the 70's, SOS was made with ground beef instead of chipped. I still make it this way today. Sometimes, my late wife would serve it in my old mess kit on veterans day. lol
supplying troops on the battlefield is a challenging task, not only do you need to transport supplies, you also have to prepare the food, another challenge that was present even during the 2 world wars was the fact that food needed to be edible for long periods of time and not spoil quickly in harsh environments which is why canned foods were so heavily used as rations during the world wars
Every late spring I'll plunder my garden for nettles to turn into soup served with plenty of bacon and fresh baked bread.
I do leave some for the butterfly larvae, though.
And as for nutella in danish ration: They're back, baby. Along with real rye bread!
Jacob Haugaard also promised you'd always have the wind in your back when bicycling.
My father was in the Medical Service Corps during WWII, stationed at that facility at the University of Chicago. They had shown me their "Guinea Pig" licenses. For all the meals that made it out to the troops, there were many others which were so bad they were not used. The people who worked at the Nutrition Labs were the taste testers. Mother said it was hard to believe how ghastly some of the food items were that they had to eat.
Thanks for Sharing
My grandfather was in the war. He personally loved S.O.S. he made it a few times. The way they made it was two variations, one with ground beef and the other with dried chipped beef. I personally preferred the chipped beef version. It's a meal I still make occasionally and remember my grandfather.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
Interesting history, but I have a suggestion for the video - I would leave out the clips of modern soldiers except for when they are specifically mentioned. The clips that were in context of their history were perfect, but then it constantly kept shifting to pictures and videos of modern soldiers while talking about world war II. I found it to be a little off-putting and it broke up my concentration of what was being said. Stick with photos of the time period and people being discussed, and I think it would be a lot better.
Thanks for suggesting…. Will surely incorporate
I can't watch any more! It's bringing back horrible memories!
Nettle soup was around a LOT further back than the world wars.
Please fix the title. It should read " TOP 20 Brutal Foods SOLDIERS Ate During Past Wars".
What Nutella in modern Danish rations has to do with ww2?
I loved SOS, the Popeye's Chain used to sell on Army Posts, an SOS made with sausage . . . .
The first meal I ate in basic training was chipped beef on toast. I liked it! I still eat it once in a while.
Still very popular in Pennsylvania Dutch country
Thanks for sharing
I serverd in the US Navy and then the US Army. I Loved Navy and Army SOS, and I STILL make SOS to this day. I am PA Dutch and I never heard it called anything other than SOS or Chipped Beef and Gravy on Toast. It can also be made with ground beef, ground pork, or pork sausage.
Tradtonal German soldiers meal was Erbsensuppe/ pea soup from 1870 to 1945.
I Love Spam!
Thanks for sharing
An interesting outgrowth of all these unusual meals: many of them got adapted for the food eaten by astronauts during the space program on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the 1960's. But it wasn't until the 1970's when larger Earth-orbiting space stations like US Skylab and the Russian Salyut that they could install heating ovens and electrical refrigerators to dramatically increase the variety of food available on space flights.
During the war in Vietnam US Army Long Range Rcon Patrols were given freeze dried foods like the ones mountain house makes now. Light in weight and easy to carry they used water to reconstruct the meal, if water was scarce, they could be consumed in the dry state.
Thanks for sharing 😊
Also 99% of the footage is not even closelly related to the tipics treated in the video.
What are the small white pills being put into the bully beef?
Salt cubes?
I'm beginning to think that you are not ever in the military. Because so many of the things you're talking about here were actually very good. After my years of service I actually went to Army surplus stores looking for C rations just to introduce my kids to the stuff that we ate in Vietnam.
Thanks for sharing
Worth watching for the pronunciation of “maconochie”, hilarious!
You could couple this with a feature on food civilians had to eat during wartime, it was after WW2 but there was fish from South Africa called snook, which was absolutely horrible apparently.
Whats with the marshmallow they are putting inside those cans?
Yes
Cream chipped beef on toast 😂😂😂
In my Dad's day on aircraft carriers before, during and after Korea, He fondly recalled this as "Puke on a running board"! Hahaha 😂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
Never served but I hear the Vomelette MRE was the thing of nightmares
The 4:46 Stew and the Heavy duty chocolate bars sounds great so far 😉
I'm told the modern descendant, the "tropical chocolate" is better tasting but about as easy to chew as a brick, unless carried about on an Iraqi summer day. You have to whittle shavings off it to get it down to where you can eat it, or melt it in your coffee.
Very interesting content.
Glad you think so!
Im from Maryland and we still eat SOS or "Chipped beef on toast" on a regular basis , I have 3 jars of unopened "Chipped beef" in the cupboard right now and need to re-stock soon 👍 ❤
I knew I was fit for the military, I loved MRE's
Pictures often have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Had spam growing up, still eat it. I even bought the SPAM cookbook from the website
Does STEVE1989MRE know that you used some of his original video footage for your video?
He has also used footage from Townsends too
Nutella was invented AFTER WWII ended. The first jar of Nutella left the factory on April 20, 1964.
Believe me when hungry all of this stuff taste great.
Good point.
SOS. It lived in the Army mess halls at least into the mid 80's. Ate it many times in basic training
SOS is good on toast or a biscuit. Spam goes good with rice or scrambled eggs. Some of the old C rations like the ham and Lima beans not that great but most not that bad if you can warm them up.
we hear you comming
I thought macanochie stew was a WW1 food, and it referred to the company that made tinned beef that was used in the stew?
Well there's quite a few soldiers that lived into there late 80's to there late 90's even going into there 100's,I don't know many people these days making it past 70,yes there are some but not many..
It makes you think..Have a blessed day & Take care 🤘🏻☮🤘🏻☮
We were still served "SOS" in the mess hall as late as 1987 when I got out. SgtD.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
Will you credit any of the youtubers material this is composed of for example Hard Tack from Townsends and son or Nettle soup from Atomic Shrimp?
Eh. Max Miller. Make your own.
We used to call SOS "Creamed Foreskins".
29:50 Picture soldier is Lauri Törni alias Larry Thorne, who served Finn, Germany and US armys. He died in Vietnam war.
Thanks for sharing
We do hamburger gravy instead of chipped beef. Delicious with eggs and grits, hash browns, or rice. Great breakfast if you'll be burning a lot of calories on a hike or something.
We had SOS onboard the CarlVinson in the early 80s I liked it
Thanks for sharing
I remember the Carl Vinson. I served on the 'Ville
SOS is still served in the US military today. Personally, i like it. My mother used to make this from time to time. Over toast, very tasty. In fact, i have some frozen SOS in the freezer as i type this.
When I was in the US Army, I would have wished the SOS was chipped beef, instead it was ground sausage in that white sauce. My mother used to make the chipped beef one the only issue with it is it the meat used had a lot of salt in it and that dominates the taste. The sausage version was on the greasy side.
The C-rations 1970-1973 were all OK if the main course was heated. The issues are I was in Germany where it is cold, and we were not allowed to build a fire to heat them. Spaghetti and meat balls in the winter cold is like eating greasy four dough, near the same with beans and meatballs which were on the greasy side. Any of them that had a lot of grease in them would make your stomach uneasy if eaten cold.
I was fortunate in that the C-ration meals were only for lunch/one meal a day. That is not the same as having to eat C-rations every day for all meals for months on end when there was 12 different meals.
Bet it would attract sharks too
Thanks for sharing 🙂
My moms dad ate sos in ww1(over there). But she made it with tuna. Tuna on toast. Damn good.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
K rations were for short term use
Combat units found them easy to use so used them for long periods of time
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Sometimes they didn't have a choice when they were on the front lines, a field kitchen wasn't always available.
I used Viet Nam era c-Rations as meals when hunting. --Bob Bailey in Maine
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
During my time in the US Army 78-90, we had wonderful C-rats. Ham and lima beans or ham and mother*uckers or beef stew or Alpo. Ham and eggs or puke in a can. The nicknames kinda give you an idea how tasty they were. Still can't eat Dinty Moore stew and it's been close to 30 years later. Cheers