As a filthy civie, the only experience I've ever had with US MREs is from retail stores and they have been always positive. So one day I tried to compliment a veteran's pot luck dish that it was better than any MRE and he got all insulted.
The Ukraine war is the biggest waste of money and resources in US history we are wasting all those weapons and all that money that needs to be used to fight the Real Enemy China
The Ukraine war is a waste of taxpayer resources it should be saved to fight the Real Enemy the Chinese the Russians are responsible for killing more than a million Americans with virus
Sure thing man. Do a US one too. Chili Mac please. That's my all time favorite. Crumbling the bread into it and mixing is something I would order from home some days. But don't screw up the heating process, get it right. "A rock or something" is definately required. So my suggestion is eat them like we do. You get a bottle of water and a MRE and work thru it. Start cooking right away while you do everything else so get right to the rocking or somethinging LOL
As a Brit our rations were not bad but after a few weeks became very boring I loved the US MRE’s and we’d enthusiastically trade in Afghanistan with fellow yanks. Weirdly the yanks loved ours too! I guess a change in rations is really important for long duration meal planning
I was a supply clerk on a US carrier, and the food was generally pretty darned good ... but when you eat at the same restaurant three times a day every day of the month, you want something different.
All soldiers in any army the world over will always go for each other's rat packs. A fair amount of horse trading will always be done, always has been amongst soldiers. We always went for American mres. Next up would be the brits.
In North Africa, the British were so sick of bully beef but the Germans were delighted to capture some. It just shows how rations can be repetitive and boring. I remember in basic training out in the field, and one of my fellow trainees looked at the date on his c rations and yelled, this stuff is older than I am. A guy I worked with who was in the guard hated MREs and said he missed c rations, go figure.
In WW2 the British civilian population was subject to heavy food rationing, GI's would give kids C-rations and the kids would think they'd won the lottery
My grandfather talked about ration trading with 'The Yanks'. You get sick of SPAM faster than bullied-beef but you do get sick of it. He also noted that at the height of blitz, with rations at an all-time low, there were always tins of herring in tomato sauce at the gun. (He hated it, and wasn't alone)
Early MREs from the 90s was really bad, hence the names like 'meals rejected by Ethiopians', 'meals rejected by everyone', '3 lies for the price of one'. Modern MREs today are much better.
@@killer3000ad Used to acquire surplus ones for Scouts. We called it 'Meals Ready to Excrete'. That being said, the MRE peanut butter was a solid cure for the diarrhea .
@@worldcomicsreview354Really? Guys, during the siege of Leningrad, people ate all the cats and dogs in the city. They even ate wallpaper. Many of the residents died right on the streets from hunger.
Good point. And for those of us who were in when MRE's were first introduced ( early 80's) some of the MCI's (Meal, Combat Individual) also known as just "C-rats" or just plain "C's" were pretty good. Pound cake with either peaches or fruit cocktail....A perfect desert for a grunt😀😋🤤
I got into the Marines in the 1993. Over the years the MREs had gotten better and better. I've seen a bunch of videos with guys trying out different rations from other countries. Some of them are pretty good but IMO, the US MREs are the best. The different MRE menu, the lavish extras are top notch. Even the chemical heater we take for granted in the MRE is something missing from a lot of others out there. Because having a fire for a warm meal may not be a good idea to have going on. The chemical heater gets you warm food without having a bright fire going, and feel that much better about a reasonably hot meal in your belly. Hell, the heater wasn't even in the MREs when I first got in. In the early-mid 1990s we still had a bunch of the old 1980s MREs around and the pound cake was the best thing.
As I understood from another video, the plastic wrapper is actually a sealed zip-lock bag. The carboard box offers more protection for the contents during handling an storage. If opened along the sealed side, the carboard box can be taken out, the contents re-packed in the bag, zip-locked close, and packed in the back-pack just before action.
it never occurred to this guy to take the stuff out the box before he puts it in his bergen, I am betting he was a general or some kind of staff officer.
@@christophershear409I would feed him wallpaper. My grandmother lived in besieged Leningrad. I think he should try the wallpaper. They should not be cooked raw.
Being able to read Russian (I'm Ukrainian), I just couldn't help but laugh when he was holding the bag that says "jam" and says "probably esbit stove fuel". Same with "probably some hot beverage" when it's just a bag of sugar. Anyway, that first round can you opened is vegetable paste called Ikra (same word as we use for caviar, for some reason), and the main ingredient is vegetable marrow (a plant that, according to Wikipedia, is closely related to pumpkins). I don't know how that particular one tastes, being expired and in an MRE, but when it's fresh, it is absolutely delicious.
Always feel kinda a little frustrated when watch something that narrator have no knowledge of the language that you know,there is nothing wrong with that but it would be very good if narrator did some research. I speak Russian as my third language by the way
I only joined for free food because I was poor. And being paid to play with guns and go camping with friends is also cool. No other reason to join if your country isnt invaded by Hitler
Germany, the "EPA" was a cardboard box during my time in the Bundeswehr. And it was until 2018, then it was a big brown plastic bag like the MRE. Bigger than regular MREs, because the EPA are designed for 24h. But the old packaging had the advantage of some sort of tin cans that could be heated on the hexamine cooker directly. The new meals are packaged differently, you'll have to heat them up in a pot of water because the packaging is like the MRE meals, but no flameless ration heater is provided. Every soldier has his own reusable hexamine cooker and hexamine fuel is provided by the supply NCO of the company. Also every soldier has a mess kit and utensils. So the German EPA does not come with any utensils or cooker. But I remember during my time of service they have started removing the water treatment pills from the package. Maybe some guys thought this was chewing gum or so... But anyhow, the EPA was popular amongst American soldiers afaik. Read some interesting comments from Afghanistan veterans that traded an EPA for 2 MREs to American soldiers.
Nice meal. I had a Russian in my platoon (20 years USMC) who had been in the Soviet Army. He said that the smell of the food in the chow hall would make you gag until you got used to it. That is why so many units had their own livestock and gardens while in garrison.
10:46 then why didn't you heat it up? Also some Russian MREs do include a tiny foldable stand and dry fuel for you to heat up your food, it would give you the hint that you should heat some of this stuff up, it does make MREs better considering we all would want a hot meal in a place where you probably will lose your sanity
I think the real answer for the hard outer packaging is that Russian logistics do not use pallets, they just throw all the packages on top of one another and make it fit. They're like airport baggage handlers but with explosives.
Not really. Russian logistics use pallets like everybody else. It is becouse of soft "cans" that can be easily damaged or ruptured thus making kasha spoil. Basicly it is a good idea.
Heated up, that meat and barley is actually very enjoyable-have taken a few of those camping, soaked the biscuits in the tea and sugar to soften them and flavour them.
I bought one of these Russian MREs about 4 years ago. Nothing was edible! The pate looked, smelled, and I assume tasted like cat food. The biscuits although not stale had no flavor, and the main had a over powering metallic taste. The real funny thing is we had raccoon problem around my apartment complex, and as usual had torn open my garbage bags, everything in the MRE was scattered around and nothing had been touched. That's pretty bad, when even animals who survive scavenging want nothing to do with that food!
You can definitely carry a lot more if you field strip them. Take everything out of the boxes and toss what you won't need. I kept main meals in my pack but anything easy to eat I kept on my person. Beats digging in your ruck for a quick snack. I usually kept two spoons and tossed the rest. Ounces add up to pounds and pounds add up to a sore back.
*_Ration Items_* 02:40 повидло яблочное нестерилизованное (с консервантом) / _povidlo yablochnoye nesterilizovannoye (s konservantom)_ > "Apple Jam, Unsterilized (with preservatives)". 02:54 икра овощная- икра из кабачков / _ikra ovoshchnaya - ikra iz kabachkov_ > "vegetable caviar - caviar made with zucchini". Vegetable ration item. 03:28 Галеты простой - из муки пшеничной (первого сорта) / _Galety prostoy - iz muki pshenichnoy_ ( _pervogo sorta_ ) > "Simple Biscuit - made from wheat flour (first grade)" 03:44 каша перловая (с говядиной) / _Kasha perlovaya_ ( _s govyadinoy_ ) > "Pearl Barley Porridge (with Beef)". Meat & Vegetable ration item. 03:55 Чай черный / _Chay Chernyy_ > "Tea, Black". МАЙСКИЙ ( _Maiskiyi_ ) is the name of the company that makes the tea. It looks like a packet of their _Koronet_ ("Coronet") brand black tea.
When you ate the jam, as soon as you said it tasted delicious, I thought then it's got to be lantern fuel or something like that. If it tastes good, it's not for eating.
These would probably be considered a huge gift for Russian soldiers currently sitting in trenches given how many of them are virtually starving for lack of logistics.
I’m almost sure someone has already pointed this out, but just in case they haven’t - the date stamps on Russian canned food is the date of production, not the expiration date. The expiration is usually noted on the label separately like “Expires in 2 years after production”
Back in the early/ mid ' 80s, when we switched from c-rats to mre's. At first we really liked the change, but soon enough began harassing the logistics to include the c-rats just for variety. MRE's just didn't cut it those first few years.
Not gonna lie, I ALWAYS loved MREs....I would avoid the stupid vegetarian ones, but any time I got them I loved them. I still pick them up at the Commissary every so often and have one for dinner when I just don't have the energy to make anything. American MREs are legitimately just good, and even beat the higher end backpacking meals I've used in the past on backpacking trips. On top of that, they're only kinda expensive, and not staggeringly expensive. I kinda feel bad for the militaries of other countries who had to eat non-US rations, because ours were the best.
To be fair, anti-tank weapons turn all tanks to scrap. M1 Abrams will turn to scrap if hit with a copper jet munitions. So dont be hard on the T90, it does what it was designed to do, does it well but nothing can survive a copperhead missile.
@jesuszamora6949 the Abrams in Iraq that got toasted didn't look all that much better. I can not say how the tank crews did, I hope you are right. the survivability of the crew after a copperhead strike is good design. But I doubt it would survive that.
I was in the exchange program from my university and stayed in Russia for 2 years. My campus cantin sold these mre boxs and the jam you put it in warm water to drink. These Russian mre generally pack with high calories food and I love it
Interesting point about the US mre being in a flexible bag. Much easier to stow than a rigid box. Same with the older British 24hr. ration packs - a box which had to be broken down and stowed among your pack, pouches and pockets. Useful for munching on the go though.
I imagine a bag is a lot easier to store in a bag or in a pocket in the field, but I imagine they chose boxes because those are a lot easier to stack on pallets and ship to the front line in trains.
@@InquisitorShepard Good point. As I said, as soon as a squaddie was issued with his boxed rat pack, he promptly broke it down and stowed it about him to his personal preference. Officially, we were supposed to keep the box as a useful fire starter if push came to shove. But you know British squaddies - ! 😆
ive had several russian rations and i find if you heat any of those barley meals then mix that tomato past in with it it takes away that dog food taste and its not too bad.those crackers are always like that.the whole wheat ones are worse,i found the best meal was the meatballs.
Hardtack in German Federal Defence EPA also wasn't salted or sugared; that's why you get sugar (sachar) and salt separately. You can take a taste-less hardtack and put jam on it, and you have a sweet dish; you can put corned beef or the like on it, and you have a spicy meal; or you can put boot polish on them and use them as a fire starter. That wouldn't work if they were salted or sweetened. You have seen the way to deal with it, just sweeten the jam or put the spices in the puree/meal. Maybe that also increases shelf life as the jam/puree/lard meat tend to be sealed better.
Thing is, methinks this is one the _better_ Russian field rations, since it was probably skimmed off the supply meant for active personnel to sell internationally at a good $ profit. Still would've liked to have seen you heat this up with that esbit stove to see whether it improved its palatability.
Heating food usually does make it taste a little better. I’m of the old school, US Army Cav Scout, we very rarely had opportunity to heat food in the field. I got used to eating them cold. To this day there are some foods I refuse to heat up even though most people look at me like I’m an alien.
And since it probably was skimmed off of the supply meant for use to be sold at a profit, it's contributing to Russia's ongoing dismal failure in Ukraine. Good job, purloined package of Russian food. Keep it up.
Nope, these things get sold i think a year or so before the expiary date like everywhere. The crackers are made stale to not give a taste off when being eaten with the jam and the other thing that i dont know how to translate, sadly they are a bit too hard but still okay, as thats done for it to not break at the first impact and have a good shelftime. You have to heat up the kasha and when you do that you have to only get a small little hole into the top, so that it doesent burn and gets warm in its juices, most do that part wrong, opening it up fully or partly, letting the moisture out, getting a burnt dry meal.
First person came up showing us these so thank you. Would appreciate knowing what everything really was and seeing it eaten. Lighting the stove up and assembly would have been awesome. But a great breakdown of one type of them and the comparison.
They should try to cook the Russian entree in a pan or mess tin...adding some water. .that will nake very tasty stew for biscuits....Cheers...😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
That “can opener” looks really interesting. I’d love to see a video demonstrating its uses and comparing it to other can openers used in various military branches throughout the world, F.R.E.D., P38, etc.
So, the food in 2:52 is, i believe, called "marrow caviar". Or at least i think that it would be an appropriate translation from Russian. I personally would eat it spread over the hardtack or biscuit. The one in 3:43 is pearl barley porridge with beef. I probably should clarify that the word "каша" means any kind of porridge (buckwheat, oats, etc). By the way, the porridge would be tastier if heated. To be completely fair, the name of the video looked like a clickbait. Also, the slightly older version of this MRE (or at least it looked kinda similar) had salted pork fat in it (in Russian it's called шпик, i believe), which was kind of a meme thing since it wasn't exactly good tasting (although i heard that it's actually good for frying food).
It was a bit funny to watch when a pack of apple jam is called "stove fuel" and sugar was not certainly defined before opening) But still a good job, though!
Jam is called "Povidlo", and made only using fresh fruits or berries. Kasha called "Grechka", and strange stuff inside a tiny can called "veggie caviar", and made from bakajan and tomatoes.
box might take up more room but mass storage would be easier plus using the cardboard to start a fire in colder weather regions is always ideal for a morale/survival advantage
2:25 wouldnt have it been better to print the info on the box itself? since it was sturdy enough? And a 2 ply cling wrap would have water proofed it anyways.
You ever consider heating them up like they are meant to be before you eat them? Probably would help….like if you eat one of those microwave rice packs cold it’s gross.
No mate... well, not true occasionally but facts are that in the field, most soldiers do not heat them unless it's below freezing out. No time, not worth the effort. I'm old school like that.
The red stuff was a vegetable caviar, usually tomato or Zucchini based. The green wet nap is to clean your eating utensils, the white one is for your hands.. Google translator is your friend, use it to figure out what you are eating. I love Russian/Slavic rations.
Yes, an autoloader that likes to eat crewmember arms and the spare ammo is under the turret on top of the fuel tank. Seems like a reasonable place to store it.
You need to do some basic research on what you are reviewing and how it is supposed to be used instead of flying blind and incorrectly evaluating the food.
If the ration is packed in such a tough carboard box, why not bind all your rations together and attach your food to the outside of your pack? It's even colored with a camo pattern.
I'm laughing at the beginning, I speak basic Bulgarian and I read "Sahar" which is Russian for sugar, similar to "Zahar" in Bulgarian. "Is it coffee" And I'm just waiting, knowing its the sugar for the tea.
The mre´s had something for everyone, in sweden we had candy and liver paste among the things in the pack, as I am not delighted in sweets and candy I often traded away my candy for the small liver paste can which was in the packs, and since most ppl liked sweets it led to bidding wars. When my time was served I had 130 cans of liver paste which was my favorite. Nostalgia makes me want them more than I should now that I am older. The mre's at least when I served were like a trading card game.
Meal components: 1. каша перловая с говядиной (kasha perlovaya s govyadoyi) - barley porridge with beef 2. икра овощая - икра из кабачков (ikra oboshchaya - ikra iz kabachkov) - vegetable paste - zucchini paste, ikra can literally mean caviar. 3. майский чай (maiskiyi chai) - May tea 4. подвило (podvilo) - jam, the lighting made it too difficult to see the type. 5. сахар, белый (sakhar' beliyi) - sugar, white 6. перец (pepets) - pepper 7. саль (sal') - salt 8. Леты Простые (Leti Prostie) - Simpler Years, as you said a hardtack (track replacement pads), best dipped in tea to soften. Use the vegetable paste, jam, or porridge with them. Might need a large heavy implement to break them up into smaller more digestible pieces. The other things are explained in the video.
Hi from 🇬🇧 Just wanted to drop a note to say I enjoy your content, and as an Army veteran myself I completely understand what you’re saying regarding the way we enjoy the nostalgia factor of rations. I also share your ‘hobby’ of sampling different nations military rations. My personal favourites are the current French issue and also the British Army ones which if you haven’t tried I’d definitely recommend. Keep up the great work 👍🏻
Even when I was in I enjoyed MREs. And more often than not enjoyed them more than hot chow. Guys love to complain , especially in the field. Sometimes you just have to be creative with what you're given. For example I used to put just a small portion of water in the Cocoa powder drink mix just enough to give it the consistency of brownie batter, maybe add a little peanut butter to it too and make a dessert
Hi there, you raise some good points but to be totally fair to the video and your viewers, maybe you should consider heating up the meal to allow the flavours to reach your taste buds. It could be the difference between a wow or a meh. Peace ✌️
Here's a fun idea. After all items are out of their packages, covers, cans, bags & boxes place them all on a scale and find the weight you would be carrying in just coverings.
The T-90 could just as well be an Ahbrams tank, it's getting pasted because it's the equivalent of a land battleship, and the air craft carrier has arrived. Remember what happened at Pearl Harbor. All the American battleships got sent to the bottom of the ocean by little flying airplanes... with torpedos and bombs. It wasn't the arrival of the air plane on the scene that changed the balance of power, but a bomb they could carry that in one blow could take out a battleship (or in this case, tank).
You can't really compare a 24 hr ration (RU IMP or IRP) to a single meal ration (US MRE). Instead of carrying 6 US MREs, the equivalent to 6 24 hour Russian rations would be 18 US MREs...
I swear the moment you opened it I imidiately thought of those Lootcrate packages "aww Sergey got a limited edition Deadpool figure in his, all I got was a crappy Simpsons shirt"
Haha..the “biscuits” are definitely hardtack. You’d really have to soak those things in the tea to make them edible…which probably what a Russian soldier would do. Hardtack are essentially simple grain biscuits (just flour and water) baked until they are so dry that they have a shelf life of ten years or so.
Watching you try this is great you're brave.l used to just shovel it down chased down with coffee, the desert we're always my favourite any you should look at expedition food strawberry and porridge its yum yum. Watching from Scotland peace and love to all
Is that just one meal or is it meant to be a 24Hrs MRE ? Please tell me it was just one meal as the calories provided is only half of what a soldier would require in the field.
My pantry is stocked with items that will outlive my grand kids, good stuff like Spam, Roast Beef, sealed pancake mix, a lot of goos stuff to keep us alive. Top it off with Venison, Turkey and Quail and we are well fed. If it wasn't for the price I would have a case or two of real MRE. As a kid going camping I always had the real deal C and K ration. I learned right away that anything you cook with the sterno tabs will end up tasting like sterno. MREs a a lot better today!!
Do you know how much effort went into developing the methods needed to make military rations? I'm a food scientist (yes a thing), and the first real effort to create a shelf stable nutritional food was canning, the invention was actually a number of inventions, the start of which is attributed to Frenchman Nicolas Appert. Napoleon's government offered a reward for a solution to a big problem: Troops couldn't subsist on hardtack and salted meat alone... scurvy, starvation, and other forms of malnutrition incapacitated and even killed troops long before battle, so they offered a 12,000 franc reward. Nicolas eventually earned it... but his method was far from perfect and required a number of other developments and inventions (mostly coming from the US (Civil war) and the UK) before it was actually dependable. Yes modern food preservation, indeed the nutrition and safety of modern food itself, is due to the needs of war
Most modern tech is due to the needs of war. Canning is still an effective method for rations today. Napoleon was ahead of his time. An army marches on it stomach and the little ribbons you pin to their chests.
Seems like the Russians call a lot of different things Kasha. In several Russian meals, I've found grain, not unlike grits labeled Kasha, and what was clearly oatmeal labeled Kasha and meat and potatoes, labeled Kasha.
@@MREScout Oops, sorry. Interesting, didn't know that. I hope you'll get some of the kind folks that send you guys lots of healthy ones from Europe and Scandinavia. No chemicals, simple ingredients. Maybe since they all have national healthcare they feed them healthier food, who knows. Anyway, I like your stories. It's much more interesting than just watching someone eat.
@@MREScout Dictionary says it's (slavic) generically applied to cooked groats or porridge, so seeing 'Kasha' on Russian packaging is kind of like seeing "Quaker" here.
Thanks for watching. Prefer to see a US MRE? ua-cam.com/video/2_1tw_uu_xo/v-deo.html
As a filthy civie, the only experience I've ever had with US MREs is from retail stores and they have been always positive. So one day I tried to compliment a veteran's pot luck dish that it was better than any MRE and he got all insulted.
The Ukraine war is the biggest waste of money and resources in US history we are wasting all those weapons and all that money that needs to be used to fight the Real Enemy China
The Ukraine war is a waste of taxpayer resources it should be saved to fight the Real Enemy the Chinese the Russians are responsible for killing more than a million Americans with virus
So funny listening to you eat the cracker. It sounded like you were eating glass.
Sure thing man. Do a US one too. Chili Mac please. That's my all time favorite. Crumbling the bread into it and mixing is something I would order from home some days.
But don't screw up the heating process, get it right. "A rock or something" is definately required. So my suggestion is eat them like we do. You get a bottle of water and a MRE and work thru it. Start cooking right away while you do everything else so get right to the rocking or somethinging LOL
As a Brit our rations were not bad but after a few weeks became very boring
I loved the US MRE’s and we’d enthusiastically trade in Afghanistan with fellow yanks.
Weirdly the yanks loved ours too!
I guess a change in rations is really important for long duration meal planning
Hahaha as a US Navy Corpsman in Afghanistan I traded rations with you Brits all the time!
The Gurkha rations were my favourite
I was a supply clerk on a US carrier, and the food was generally pretty darned good ... but when you eat at the same restaurant three times a day every day of the month, you want something different.
All soldiers in any army the world over will always go for each other's rat packs. A fair amount of horse trading will always be done, always has been amongst soldiers. We always went for American mres. Next up would be the brits.
@@grizwoldphantasia5005 Exactly.
In North Africa, the British were so sick of bully beef but the Germans were delighted to capture some. It just shows how rations can be repetitive and boring. I remember in basic training out in the field, and one of my fellow trainees looked at the date on his c rations and yelled, this stuff is older than I am. A guy I worked with who was in the guard hated MREs and said he missed c rations, go figure.
In WW2 the British civilian population was subject to heavy food rationing, GI's would give kids C-rations and the kids would think they'd won the lottery
My grandfather talked about ration trading with 'The Yanks'. You get sick of SPAM faster than bullied-beef but you do get sick of it. He also noted that at the height of blitz, with rations at an all-time low, there were always tins of herring in tomato sauce at the gun. (He hated it, and wasn't alone)
Early MREs from the 90s was really bad, hence the names like 'meals rejected by Ethiopians', 'meals rejected by everyone', '3 lies for the price of one'. Modern MREs today are much better.
@@killer3000ad Used to acquire surplus ones for Scouts. We called it 'Meals Ready to Excrete'. That being said, the MRE peanut butter was a solid cure for the diarrhea .
@@worldcomicsreview354Really? Guys, during the siege of Leningrad, people ate all the cats and dogs in the city. They even ate wallpaper. Many of the residents died right on the streets from hunger.
It is funny that we complained about MRE's in service, but years later we look back fondly at them and how good they were.
Good point. And for those of us who were in when MRE's were first introduced ( early 80's) some of the MCI's (Meal, Combat Individual) also known as just "C-rats" or just plain "C's" were pretty good.
Pound cake with either peaches or fruit cocktail....A perfect desert for a grunt😀😋🤤
Remember the green bags lol did basic in the late 90s and most at Knox were from early 80s.... the good old days...
I got into the Marines in the 1993. Over the years the MREs had gotten better and better. I've seen a bunch of videos with guys trying out different rations from other countries. Some of them are pretty good but IMO, the US MREs are the best. The different MRE menu, the lavish extras are top notch. Even the chemical heater we take for granted in the MRE is something missing from a lot of others out there. Because having a fire for a warm meal may not be a good idea to have going on. The chemical heater gets you warm food without having a bright fire going, and feel that much better about a reasonably hot meal in your belly. Hell, the heater wasn't even in the MREs when I first got in.
In the early-mid 1990s we still had a bunch of the old 1980s MREs around and the pound cake was the best thing.
I liked most of them. Over time they vastly improved on the selection and taste.
I guess i must be spoiled in the Air Force, But i still dont want to eat an MRE, didnt like eating them for 2 weeks straight.
As I understood from another video, the plastic wrapper is actually a sealed zip-lock bag. The carboard box offers more protection for the contents during handling an storage. If opened along the sealed side, the carboard box can be taken out, the contents re-packed in the bag, zip-locked close, and packed in the back-pack just before action.
That's pretty neat. You can do a lot with a ziploc bag.
it never occurred to this guy to take the stuff out the box before he puts it in his bergen, I am betting he was a general or some kind of staff officer.
@@drno4837 He talked about field stripping MRE's and how the current packaging of the US rations don't require it anymore.
@@christophershear409I would feed him wallpaper. My grandmother lived in besieged Leningrad. I think he should try the wallpaper. They should not be cooked raw.
First packet was jelly, tin was vegetable (eggplant) caviar. last tin canned meat with vegetables with barley porridge. The last packet is sugar.
It's not jelly it's called apple butter and it rocks.
@@stevemontana5974 How do you all know this stuff?
@@zulubeatz1 So far I've had 3 Russian rations and they all had that apple butter. It's not really like jam, it tastes more like apple pie filling.
@@stevemontana5974 It is jelly, povidlo is basically russian jam and I'm pretty sure OP is talking about jam
@@Patriot2609 Apple butter is what Americans call apple jelly lol
Being able to read Russian (I'm Ukrainian), I just couldn't help but laugh when he was holding the bag that says "jam" and says "probably esbit stove fuel". Same with "probably some hot beverage" when it's just a bag of sugar.
Anyway, that first round can you opened is vegetable paste called Ikra (same word as we use for caviar, for some reason), and the main ingredient is vegetable marrow (a plant that, according to Wikipedia, is closely related to pumpkins). I don't know how that particular one tastes, being expired and in an MRE, but when it's fresh, it is absolutely delicious.
Haha yeah was a pretty funny stupid review.. Imagine him trying to light the jam with a firesteel
Right? I read vagly russian, however when you see the esbit tabs right under the 1st package, be safe to assume that wasn't it in the package.
Это похоже на то, что сделал Markiplier, но немного хуже.
Always feel kinda a little frustrated
when watch something that narrator have no knowledge of the language that you know,there is nothing wrong with that but it would be very good if narrator did some research. I speak Russian as my third language by the way
Украины скоро не будет, последние дни этого квазигосударства, придуманного Лениным как республика. Плешивый Ленин перестарался
The "tomato soup" is actually eggplant puree "kabachkovaya ikra" literally eggplant caviar :)
Imagine being in the military just for the MRE's
Is there another reason?
Might be fuel, might be Kool aid
Sounds like a me thing
Makes as much sense as joining the military for the military discount when buying a pack of ham-flavored gum.
I only joined for free food because I was poor. And being paid to play with guns and go camping with friends is also cool. No other reason to join if your country isnt invaded by Hitler
You mentioned the bulky box; I have been surprised at how many countries package their rations in boxes and foil 'bowls'.
Doesn’t make sense to me. Too easy to blow up when subjected to the kind of treatment it’s going to get in a ruck sack.
@@MREScout Yep!
Off the shelf
Not ment for long term storage
Germany, the "EPA" was a cardboard box during my time in the Bundeswehr. And it was until 2018, then it was a big brown plastic bag like the MRE. Bigger than regular MREs, because the EPA are designed for 24h. But the old packaging had the advantage of some sort of tin cans that could be heated on the hexamine cooker directly. The new meals are packaged differently, you'll have to heat them up in a pot of water because the packaging is like the MRE meals, but no flameless ration heater is provided. Every soldier has his own reusable hexamine cooker and hexamine fuel is provided by the supply NCO of the company. Also every soldier has a mess kit and utensils. So the German EPA does not come with any utensils or cooker. But I remember during my time of service they have started removing the water treatment pills from the package. Maybe some guys thought this was chewing gum or so...
But anyhow, the EPA was popular amongst American soldiers afaik. Read some interesting comments from Afghanistan veterans that traded an EPA for 2 MREs to American soldiers.
A canteen cup over a small flame is a dandy, time-tested ration heater.
Russians love their jam, that's one thing they do very well. The cherry is awesome! Makes Smuckers taste like artificial flavored GMO corn syrup.
It's true! I got a jar of berry preserves once - really intense flavor.
Nice meal. I had a Russian in my platoon (20 years USMC) who had been in the Soviet Army. He said that the smell of the food in the chow hall would make you gag until you got used to it. That is why so many units had their own livestock and gardens while in garrison.
Churka
10:46 then why didn't you heat it up? Also some Russian MREs do include a tiny foldable stand and dry fuel for you to heat up your food, it would give you the hint that you should heat some of this stuff up, it does make MREs better considering we all would want a hot meal in a place where you probably will lose your sanity
It came packed with a stove, eating it cold doesn’t give a real sense of how it tastes.
The kasha is pretty good if you warm it up in a pan of boiling water. It just scorches if you put a flame under it.
Sorry dude , I’ve had several Russian MRE and they were all quite tasty
One advantage of a carboard box is its usefullness in starting & maintaining a fire.
I think the real answer for the hard outer packaging is that Russian logistics do not use pallets, they just throw all the packages on top of one another and make it fit. They're like airport baggage handlers but with explosives.
That is SO inefficient and backwards.
Especially when they don't have the manpower left to hump the kit
Im pretty sure Russians use pallets just like we do lol.
Not really. Russian logistics use pallets like everybody else. It is becouse of soft "cans" that can be easily damaged or ruptured thus making kasha spoil. Basicly it is a good idea.
Where did this mention of explosives come from? Perhaps you pulled this out if your ass
Heated up, that meat and barley is actually very enjoyable-have taken a few of those camping, soaked the biscuits in the tea and sugar to soften them and flavour them.
I thought Kasha was buckwheat
I bought one of these Russian MREs about 4 years ago. Nothing was edible! The pate looked, smelled, and I assume tasted like cat food. The biscuits although not stale had no flavor, and the main had a over powering metallic taste. The real funny thing is we had raccoon problem around my apartment complex, and as usual had torn open my garbage bags, everything in the MRE was scattered around and nothing had been touched. That's pretty bad, when even animals who survive scavenging want nothing to do with that food!
wahhh wahhhh
@@bluudlung You wanna "wahhh wahhh" my what?😆😅
@@alansmithee4957 imagine not being smart enough to realize i was making fun of you
@@bluudlung Pretty poor attempt.
If the "trash pandas" won't eat it that's pretty bad!
When I was in the Army they taught us to take the MRE out of the bag, then you could fit one each in your cargo pockets to save room in your ruck!
You can definitely carry a lot more if you field strip them. Take everything out of the boxes and toss what you won't need. I kept main meals in my pack but anything easy to eat I kept on my person. Beats digging in your ruck for a quick snack. I usually kept two spoons and tossed the rest. Ounces add up to pounds and pounds add up to a sore back.
*_Ration Items_*
02:40 повидло яблочное нестерилизованное (с консервантом) / _povidlo yablochnoye nesterilizovannoye (s konservantom)_ > "Apple Jam, Unsterilized (with preservatives)".
02:54 икра овощная- икра из кабачков / _ikra ovoshchnaya - ikra iz kabachkov_ > "vegetable caviar - caviar made with zucchini". Vegetable ration item.
03:28 Галеты простой - из муки пшеничной (первого сорта) / _Galety prostoy - iz muki pshenichnoy_ ( _pervogo sorta_ ) > "Simple Biscuit - made from wheat flour (first grade)"
03:44 каша перловая (с говядиной) / _Kasha perlovaya_ ( _s govyadinoy_ ) > "Pearl Barley Porridge (with Beef)". Meat & Vegetable ration item.
03:55 Чай черный / _Chay Chernyy_ > "Tea, Black". МАЙСКИЙ ( _Maiskiyi_ ) is the name of the company that makes the tea. It looks like a packet of their _Koronet_ ("Coronet") brand black tea.
The fuel tabs are an acquired taste but they will keep you warm inside😂😂😂
When you ate the jam, as soon as you said it tasted delicious, I thought then it's got to be lantern fuel or something like that. If it tastes good, it's not for eating.
HAPPY NEW YEARS 2023
These would probably be considered a huge gift for Russian soldiers currently sitting in trenches given how many of them are virtually starving for lack of logistics.
I’m almost sure someone has already pointed this out, but just in case they haven’t - the date stamps on Russian canned food is the date of production, not the expiration date. The expiration is usually noted on the label separately like “Expires in 2 years after production”
Conscript: Comrade Lieutenant! i think my ration is expired.
Lieutenant: Maybe you're not hungry enough.
Back in the early/ mid ' 80s, when we switched from c-rats to mre's.
At first we really liked the change, but soon enough began harassing the logistics to include the c-rats just for variety.
MRE's just didn't cut it those first few years.
My butthole still hurts. 1st gen MREs were teh debbil. Especially in the desert
Not gonna lie, I ALWAYS loved MREs....I would avoid the stupid vegetarian ones, but any time I got them I loved them. I still pick them up at the Commissary every so often and have one for dinner when I just don't have the energy to make anything.
American MREs are legitimately just good, and even beat the higher end backpacking meals I've used in the past on backpacking trips. On top of that, they're only kinda expensive, and not staggeringly expensive. I kinda feel bad for the militaries of other countries who had to eat non-US rations, because ours were the best.
To be fair, anti-tank weapons turn all tanks to scrap. M1 Abrams will turn to scrap if hit with a copper jet munitions. So dont be hard on the T90, it does what it was designed to do, does it well but nothing can survive a copperhead missile.
True, but the Abrams doesn't fall apart quite as catastrophically, and the crew tends to live. Give and take, I suppose.
@jesuszamora6949 the Abrams in Iraq that got toasted didn't look all that much better. I can not say how the tank crews did, I hope you are right. the survivability of the crew after a copperhead strike is good design. But I doubt it would survive that.
I was in the exchange program from my university and stayed in Russia for 2 years. My campus cantin sold these mre boxs and the jam you put it in warm water to drink. These Russian mre generally pack with high calories food and I love it
British rations are very palatable in general....Cheers.❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Interesting point about the US mre being in a flexible bag. Much easier to stow than a rigid box. Same with the older British 24hr. ration packs - a box which had to be broken down and stowed among your pack, pouches and pockets. Useful for munching on the go though.
I imagine a bag is a lot easier to store in a bag or in a pocket in the field, but I imagine they chose boxes because those are a lot easier to stack on pallets and ship to the front line in trains.
@@InquisitorShepard Good point. As I said, as soon as a squaddie was issued with his boxed rat pack, he promptly broke it down and stowed it about him to his personal preference. Officially, we were supposed to keep the box as a useful fire starter if push came to shove. But you know British squaddies - ! 😆
@@InquisitorShepard MREs come tightly packed in boxes of 12, each box is slightly larger than a cinder block. They pack and palletize very well.
ive had several russian rations and i find if you heat any of those barley meals then mix that tomato past in with it it takes away that dog food taste and its not too bad.those crackers are always like that.the whole wheat ones are worse,i found the best meal was the meatballs.
Bruh his expression at 7:54 got me dead asf 😂😂😂
Great videos always MRE Scout I am addicted to these!
Hardtack in German Federal Defence EPA also wasn't salted or sugared; that's why you get sugar (sachar) and salt separately. You can take a taste-less hardtack and put jam on it, and you have a sweet dish; you can put corned beef or the like on it, and you have a spicy meal; or you can put boot polish on them and use them as a fire starter. That wouldn't work if they were salted or sweetened.
You have seen the way to deal with it, just sweeten the jam or put the spices in the puree/meal. Maybe that also increases shelf life as the jam/puree/lard meat tend to be sealed better.
As someone who knows russian, its realy amusing to watch you try and identify components, great vid.
Thing is, methinks this is one the _better_ Russian field rations, since it was probably skimmed off the supply meant for active personnel to sell internationally at a good $ profit.
Still would've liked to have seen you heat this up with that esbit stove to see whether it improved its palatability.
Heating food usually does make it taste a little better. I’m of the old school, US Army Cav Scout, we very rarely had opportunity to heat food in the field. I got used to eating them cold. To this day there are some foods I refuse to heat up even though most people look at me like I’m an alien.
And since it probably was skimmed off of the supply meant for use to be sold at a profit, it's contributing to Russia's ongoing dismal failure in Ukraine. Good job, purloined package of Russian food. Keep it up.
Nope, these things get sold i think a year or so before the expiary date like everywhere. The crackers are made stale to not give a taste off when being eaten with the jam and the other thing that i dont know how to translate, sadly they are a bit too hard but still okay, as thats done for it to not break at the first impact and have a good shelftime.
You have to heat up the kasha and when you do that you have to only get a small little hole into the top, so that it doesent burn and gets warm in its juices, most do that part wrong, opening it up fully or partly, letting the moisture out, getting a burnt dry meal.
только в русском жидкости больше. А в походе читая вода на вес золота.
First person came up showing us these so thank you. Would appreciate knowing what everything really was and seeing it eaten. Lighting the stove up and assembly would have been awesome. But a great breakdown of one type of them and the comparison.
They should try to cook the Russian entree in a pan or mess tin...adding some water. .that will nake very tasty stew for biscuits....Cheers...😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
That “can opener” looks really interesting. I’d love to see a video demonstrating its uses and comparing it to other can openers used in various military branches throughout the world, F.R.E.D., P38, etc.
A Russian grunt hates u for eating his meal. At the same time, a Russian general thanks you for your purchase, please buy again
So, the food in 2:52 is, i believe, called "marrow caviar". Or at least i think that it would be an appropriate translation from Russian. I personally would eat it spread over the hardtack or biscuit. The one in 3:43 is pearl barley porridge with beef. I probably should clarify that the word "каша" means any kind of porridge (buckwheat, oats, etc). By the way, the porridge would be tastier if heated. To be completely fair, the name of the video looked like a clickbait. Also, the slightly older version of this MRE (or at least it looked kinda similar) had salted pork fat in it (in Russian it's called шпик, i believe), which was kind of a meme thing since it wasn't exactly good tasting (although i heard that it's actually good for frying food).
US MRE: take 6 of them in your backpack if you have to
russian MRE: just break it down for the love of god and stuff it around your pockets
Are the biscuits stale, or just hard tack preserved? Great video!
Both!
It was a bit funny to watch when a pack of apple jam is called "stove fuel" and sugar was not certainly defined before opening) But still a good job, though!
I've had that side at my Armenian market. It is red pepper, eggplant, and tomato spread to put on your biscuits. Like a savory jam.
Jam is called "Povidlo", and made only using fresh fruits or berries. Kasha called "Grechka", and strange stuff inside a tiny can called "veggie caviar", and made from bakajan and tomatoes.
box might take up more room but mass storage would be easier plus using the cardboard to start a fire in colder weather regions is always ideal for a morale/survival advantage
2:25 wouldnt have it been better to print the info on the box itself? since it was sturdy enough? And a 2 ply cling wrap would have water proofed it anyways.
I love these, I've had 1 or 2 24 hour versions of these and they're my favourites
You ever consider heating them up like they are meant to be before you eat them? Probably would help….like if you eat one of those microwave rice packs cold it’s gross.
No mate... well, not true occasionally but facts are that in the field, most soldiers do not heat them unless it's below freezing out. No time, not worth the effort. I'm old school like that.
One would have thought that Russia would have remembered the great US victories in Vietnam and Afghanistan before invading Ukraine?
The red stuff was a vegetable caviar, usually tomato or Zucchini based. The green wet nap is to clean your eating utensils, the white one is for your hands.. Google translator is your friend, use it to figure out what you are eating. I love Russian/Slavic rations.
6:55 that looks like an Ajvar spread usually a combination of peppers tomatoes and eggplant
The T90 has an auto loader, and the ammo is kept inside the crew compartment, under the turret, correct?
Yes, an autoloader that likes to eat crewmember arms and the spare ammo is under the turret on top of the fuel tank. Seems like a reasonable place to store it.
@@MREScout enjoy you and Ancient Me as well as Steve, although Steve seems awol as of late…
@@MREScout Dont wory, Abrams is even beter in blowing up. In couple of months whil see on mass.
@@ljubomirculibrk4097 Not a chance, troll.
@@ljubomirculibrk4097 moi avoir très hâte de vous voir perdre face... continuez et l'économie kaputt!!!☝️
As a southerner I have to say the sugar to tea ratio is perfect
You need to do some basic research on what you are reviewing and how it is supposed to be used instead of flying blind and incorrectly evaluating the food.
I know riiight 😂
My favorite MRE tool is definitely the Gerber multi tool. Great video.
If the ration is packed in such a tough carboard box, why not bind all your rations together and attach your food to the outside of your pack? It's even colored with a camo pattern.
How well does the M1 Abrams do when hit with a modern anti-tank rocket or HIMARS or MPAD?
I'm laughing at the beginning, I speak basic Bulgarian and I read "Sahar" which is Russian for sugar, similar to "Zahar" in Bulgarian.
"Is it coffee"
And I'm just waiting, knowing its the sugar for the tea.
1:57 I certainly didn't expect to see French translation on a U.S. Army ration, but this beg the question: why?
The mre´s had something for everyone, in sweden we had candy and liver paste among the things in the pack, as I am not delighted in sweets and candy I often traded away my candy for the small liver paste can which was in the packs, and since most ppl liked sweets it led to bidding wars. When my time was served I had 130 cans of liver paste which was my favorite. Nostalgia makes me want them more than I should now that I am older. The mre's at least when I served were like a trading card game.
Meal components:
1. каша перловая с говядиной (kasha perlovaya s govyadoyi) - barley porridge with beef
2. икра овощая - икра из кабачков (ikra oboshchaya - ikra iz kabachkov) - vegetable paste - zucchini paste, ikra can literally mean caviar.
3. майский чай (maiskiyi chai) - May tea
4. подвило (podvilo) - jam, the lighting made it too difficult to see the type.
5. сахар, белый (sakhar' beliyi) - sugar, white
6. перец (pepets) - pepper
7. саль (sal') - salt
8. Леты Простые (Leti Prostie) - Simpler Years, as you said a hardtack (track replacement pads), best dipped in tea to soften. Use the vegetable paste, jam, or porridge with them. Might need a large heavy implement to break them up into smaller more digestible pieces.
The other things are explained in the video.
The povidlo (jam) in the video is apple flavored
Hi from 🇬🇧
Just wanted to drop a note to say I enjoy your content, and as an Army veteran myself I completely understand what you’re saying regarding the way we enjoy the nostalgia factor of rations. I also share your ‘hobby’ of sampling different nations military rations. My personal favourites are the current French issue and also the British Army ones which if you haven’t tried I’d definitely recommend.
Keep up the great work 👍🏻
Even when I was in I enjoyed MREs. And more often than not enjoyed them more than hot chow. Guys love to complain , especially in the field. Sometimes you just have to be creative with what you're given. For example I used to put just a small portion of water in the Cocoa powder drink mix just enough to give it the consistency of brownie batter, maybe add a little peanut butter to it too and make a dessert
Hi there, you raise some good points but to be totally fair to the video and your viewers, maybe you should consider heating up the meal to allow the flavours to reach your taste buds. It could be the difference between a wow or a meh. Peace ✌️
Man i loved that ration
Way better than the american or candian stuff
6:27 yep, definitely a spoonful mate
Landscaping is such a thankless job✨️
Here's a fun idea. After all items are out of their packages, covers, cans, bags & boxes place them all on a scale and find the weight you would be carrying in just coverings.
at our rifle company we had a cooking team that cooked food out in the Forrest and their food was always delicious.
The T-90 could just as well be an Ahbrams tank, it's getting pasted because it's the equivalent of a land battleship, and the air craft carrier has arrived.
Remember what happened at Pearl Harbor. All the American battleships got sent to the bottom of the ocean by little flying airplanes... with torpedos and bombs.
It wasn't the arrival of the air plane on the scene that changed the balance of power, but a bomb they could carry that in one blow could take out a battleship (or in this case, tank).
You do realize you can translate all of this instantly with the camera on you phone.
The expiration date doesn’t mean the food spoils at that date.
You can't really compare a 24 hr ration (RU IMP or IRP) to a single meal ration (US MRE). Instead of carrying 6 US MREs, the equivalent to 6 24 hour Russian rations would be 18 US MREs...
this is no 24 hour russian white star or IRP sturm. It's a IMP of the russian national guard. 1300 calories. Comparable to a MRE. Single meal.
They still haven't figured out how to notch packages for easy opening
What is it about ration/MRE biscuits/crackers that make them look like they'd be tasty?
Any Brits remember 'Biscuits: Brown', wrapped in green plastic foil? I loved 'em! They'd keep you going during a long day in the field.
From what I've heard, they also kept you FROM "going."
This tank is safe as a Sherman.😂😂😂. Bawoosh.
Dude the sherman was a good tank.
Are you sure those were biscuits and not replacement brake pads for heavy trucks?
reactive armor tiles... they actually blew up in my stomach.
@@MREScout 10-4!
Teeth breaking just hearing that biscuit snap 😆 🤣 😂 😹
I swear the moment you opened it I imidiately thought of those Lootcrate packages "aww Sergey got a limited edition Deadpool figure in his, all I got was a crappy Simpsons shirt"
Probably help a bit if you got some rough translations of what it is you're opening... I think Steve89 is the king of MRE reviews.
"this whole thing might be spoiled"
well that would just make it more authentic.
I believe a blown up tank had one that expired in 2015.
Where are you able to find these MREs? Watching your videos and some of like to try myself after your review.
4:22 kinda expecting you to say "Nice!" split second later
Does anyone else watch so much Tasting History that you instinctively knock on wood whenever you hear the word hardtack?
Tasting history is a great channel.
Haha..the “biscuits” are definitely hardtack. You’d really have to soak those things in the tea to make them edible…which probably what a Russian soldier would do. Hardtack are essentially simple grain biscuits (just flour and water) baked until they are so dry that they have a shelf life of ten years or so.
Watching you try this is great you're brave.l used to just shovel it down chased down with coffee, the desert we're always my favourite any you should look at expedition food strawberry and porridge its yum yum. Watching from Scotland peace and love to all
Why did not he heat up before eating?
Is that just one meal or is it meant to be a 24Hrs MRE ?
Please tell me it was just one meal as the calories provided is only half of what a soldier would require in the field.
1 meal. The white star Russian IRP is a 24 hour ration. I've come to find out this one is intended for paramilitary and russian national guard forces.
*opens box*
"Hmmmm..."
*Pulls out raw turnip*
My pantry is stocked with items that will outlive my grand kids, good stuff like Spam, Roast Beef, sealed pancake mix, a lot of goos stuff to keep us alive. Top it off with Venison, Turkey and Quail and we are well fed. If it wasn't for the price I would have a case or two of real MRE. As a kid going camping I always had the real deal C and K ration. I learned right away that anything you cook with the sterno tabs will end up tasting like sterno. MREs a a lot better today!!
Do you know how much effort went into developing the methods needed to make military rations? I'm a food scientist (yes a thing), and the first real effort to create a shelf stable nutritional food was canning, the invention was actually a number of inventions, the start of which is attributed to Frenchman Nicolas Appert. Napoleon's government offered a reward for a solution to a big problem: Troops couldn't subsist on hardtack and salted meat alone... scurvy, starvation, and other forms of malnutrition incapacitated and even killed troops long before battle, so they offered a 12,000 franc reward. Nicolas eventually earned it... but his method was far from perfect and required a number of other developments and inventions (mostly coming from the US (Civil war) and the UK) before it was actually dependable. Yes modern food preservation, indeed the nutrition and safety of modern food itself, is due to the needs of war
Most modern tech is due to the needs of war. Canning is still an effective method for rations today. Napoleon was ahead of his time. An army marches on it stomach and the little ribbons you pin to their chests.
From what I've seen in the videos so far they have field cooks they don't eat that the crushing majority of the time
Begining segment, show a bunch of clips from Syria and ignore that both sides use the same tanks.
Kasha is buckwheat grouts. Very healthy, Thanks for the video.
Seems like the Russians call a lot of different things Kasha. In several Russian meals, I've found grain, not unlike grits labeled Kasha, and what was clearly oatmeal labeled Kasha and meat and potatoes, labeled Kasha.
@@MREScout Oops, sorry. Interesting, didn't know that. I hope you'll get some of the kind folks that send you guys lots of healthy ones from Europe and Scandinavia. No chemicals, simple ingredients. Maybe since they all have national healthcare they feed them healthier food, who knows. Anyway, I like your stories. It's much more interesting than just watching someone eat.
@@MREScout Dictionary says it's (slavic) generically applied to cooked groats or porridge, so seeing 'Kasha' on Russian packaging is kind of like seeing "Quaker" here.