I always tried to avoid the Hamsteak one...
There are a few of the Vegetarian ones that were good but I like pastas anyway.
The Cheese Tortellini was nice as was the Beef Chili Mac.
The rest of them I could go without....
I left Texas 4.5 years ago and sense that time I have always had plenty of canned meats on hand. I rotate them out of course.
I personally have an aversion to MRE's...maybe it's because I had to eat them in the Army...maybe not.
I would buy just one box (12 each) if you really want to buy one and store up with regular food.
My home was hit 3 times by hurricanes. I lost power for 5 days on the first one. 3 days on the second and 3 days on the third. Here's a list of what I had and what was hard to find.
20 Gallons of drinking water
25 lbs of Frozen meat
40 lbs of charcoal
3 bottles of charcoal fluid
matches
4 flashlights (D-Cell) 24 extra batteries
30 or so cans of canned meat
30 cans of various vegetables
30 cans of various (fruits)
4 Cans of roasted nuts
10 lb bag of potatoes
Powdered milk
Cereal
I wished I had bought:
BREAD!! (all the stores for 20 miles were out!)
CRACKERS!! all stores were out!)
Gasoline (all stores were out or without power!!)
I really didn't even put a dent in my storage. The whole neighborhood had cookouts all the time. It was fun. We used up all of our perishable goods first. By that time the power was restored. BTW, I have a wife and three small children.
Water was non-existent too, but it is a priority for power companies to get power to this first...so you should have plenty.
I haven't a clue, but glad you posted this so I can learn also. I am concerned about the bird flu that is being down played by the media and etc. I am stashing back some supplies just in case! Thanks!
Don't even think about it. Buy some canned foods and a manual can opener. Powdered milk. Dry cereals.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
A lot of myths out there about the MRE's. We were taught to drink one (1) qt. minimum of water with each MRE et, at least. They are very concentrated, w/ approx 12-1450 calories per meal. The early meals were "not so good" compared to the C's but in the last 20 years they have improved considerably. You won't find a C ration newer than about 30 years, so are probably not the tastiest at this point. I say bring back those 4 packs of ciggies in the accessory pack. The ones I had were fresh as a daisy, Pall Mall's iirc.
I bought a few C's at a surplus shop a few years ago. The pound cake (Eunice King's Kitchen) was really good. The MRE's have this now, too - Eunice still makes a mean poundcake - the _lemon_ and _vanilla_ pound cake is REALLY GOOD.
Storage conditions are important, freeze-thaw cycles are not what you want.
Unless you are very good in rotating your stock, the MRE's have a much shorter shelf life something like ~ 7 years while freeze dried in a can, might last 30 years. Below is a link which doesn't address MREs specifically but the concept is the same.
http://www.mountainhouse.com/faqs.cfm#17
What is the shelf life of Mountain House products?
ping