Discussion
When I was a cadet, many moons ago, we used to get the British ration packs, which as a kid, were quite good fun. They were pretty weighty though as everything was canned, apart from the “arctic” ones, where most stuff was freeze dried and needed tons of water to rehydrate (not really an issue when you’re surrounded by snow and ice...)
During my very brief flirtation with Royal Navy service, things had moved on and the ration packs were boil in the bag type. The meals were slightly more “exotic” as well. Both these and the canned stuff needed a stove, which was usually a solid fuel hexamine “Tommy cooker”. The fuel tablets stank and covered the mess tins with horrendous black soot.
It seems like the current British ration packs now have some sort of chemical “no flame” cooker, which you just add water to and put the meal pouch in with. I’m not sure what the chemical reaction is, or whether it gives off any fumes, but it seems to be pretty efficient at heating up the meal pouches.
Over on YouTube, there are plenty of people “reviewing” various ration packs. The consensus seems to be that the British ones are amongst the best - serving or recently retired soldiers/sailors/aircrew may have a different view on this! One guy, “Steve1989”, is here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJ...
Then of course, there’s “Crazy Russian Hacker”, who gets VERY excited about almost everything he eats, even if his table manners leave a little to be desired... He reviews a lot of stuff, not just ration packs.
https://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyRussianHacker
There are plenty more doing a similar kind of thing. I’m tempted to see if I can get hold of a few packs for any of my bike trips where I might end up camping. They’d also be handy in any well-equipped PHer’s “grab/go/bugout bag”.
During my very brief flirtation with Royal Navy service, things had moved on and the ration packs were boil in the bag type. The meals were slightly more “exotic” as well. Both these and the canned stuff needed a stove, which was usually a solid fuel hexamine “Tommy cooker”. The fuel tablets stank and covered the mess tins with horrendous black soot.
It seems like the current British ration packs now have some sort of chemical “no flame” cooker, which you just add water to and put the meal pouch in with. I’m not sure what the chemical reaction is, or whether it gives off any fumes, but it seems to be pretty efficient at heating up the meal pouches.
Over on YouTube, there are plenty of people “reviewing” various ration packs. The consensus seems to be that the British ones are amongst the best - serving or recently retired soldiers/sailors/aircrew may have a different view on this! One guy, “Steve1989”, is here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJ...
Then of course, there’s “Crazy Russian Hacker”, who gets VERY excited about almost everything he eats, even if his table manners leave a little to be desired... He reviews a lot of stuff, not just ration packs.
https://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyRussianHacker
There are plenty more doing a similar kind of thing. I’m tempted to see if I can get hold of a few packs for any of my bike trips where I might end up camping. They’d also be handy in any well-equipped PHer’s “grab/go/bugout bag”.
devnull said:
I bought a UK ration pack after seeing some of the SteveMRE vids (mmnnice).
They were quite a tasty lucky bag - I had a chicken curry. One thing I thought was that you could definitely taste the calories in them - not something your average office worker should be eating!
“Let’s get this on a tray...”They were quite a tasty lucky bag - I had a chicken curry. One thing I thought was that you could definitely taste the calories in them - not something your average office worker should be eating!
They are designed to be pretty calorific, but then I guess that’s what you need if you’re fighting a war. I think ration packs used to be about the last place you could get those “Spangles” boiled sweets and I seem to remember the Rolos had a fair bit of Arabic writing in them as well, I suspect we supplied the Saudis with some of their rations too.
devnull said:
I bought a UK ration pack after seeing some of the SteveMRE vids (mmnnice).
They were quite a tasty lucky bag - I had a chicken curry. One thing I thought was that you could definitely taste the calories in them - not something your average office worker should be eating!
When I was doing JSMEL stuff in Norway, we got the Arctic ration packs, which were all around the 5500-6000 calorie mark. Still didn't put on weight mind...They were quite a tasty lucky bag - I had a chicken curry. One thing I thought was that you could definitely taste the calories in them - not something your average office worker should be eating!
citizensm1th said:
Two words, biscuits brown 
From my cadet days in the dim and distant past I can still remember "Biscuits AB" - and not until now did I find out the "AB" stood for "Alternate Bread".The best use of them was to hammer them into powder and chuck them in the Chicken Supreme or Beef Curry, as I recall.
"Biscuits, Fruit" were like industrial Garibaldi, but quite edible.
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