A Backpacking Food Experiment: MREs
One of things I have enjoyed about doing the Long Trail as a series of day hikes, with occasional backpacks and even a snowshoe trip thrown in, is the opportunity to experiment. I recently tried an MRE for my dinner on one of the backpacking segments. The term “MRE” can stand for Meal, Ready to Eat or Meals Rejected by Ethiopians, depending on how hungry you are. After hiking fifteen miles on a hot July day, we had stopped for a Saturday night at the Rolston Rest shelter. Carefully following the instructions printed on the packaging, I prepared the MRE of chicken with cavatelli. While I found the meal very tasty and it had a good caloric content (around 1,200 calories), I do not think I will use them on a regular basis mostly due to the weight and lack of choice.
I did not weigh the package and only slightly stripped it before packing, but I would estimate the weight at a bit less than that of a brick and it took up slightly more room than a brick in my pack. When you consider that I used no fuel or a stove to heat the attractive meal of breaded chicken with tomato sauce and little pasta shells that might seem like a reasonable amount, but I was carrying a pot, Pepsi can stove and alcohol for my breakfast so there was little weight saved. The heating packet worked very well, but an equally hot meal of rice with salmon or mac and cheese would have been much less weight.
While the caloric content was adequate, the meal itself could have been more filling. I was famished by the time we made it to the shelter and if I had not been carrying some teriyaki beef that I dehydrated the week before, I may have been left wanting more for dinner.
Another weighty problem is all the plastic packaging you must carry out. It is significantly thicker than regular plastic food bags and takes up significant space. I try to carry out as much trash as I can find at Long Trail shelters, so I could have used the extra space in my pack that my own trash was taking up. Even five miles from the nearest trailhead, there were a lot of bottles at the shelter. As flatlanders, I think we should quietly do as much as we can to help the Vermontsers who maintain the trail and shelters.
I would have liked the meal to come with more drink mix. The twelve ounces of tasty cherry-flavored drink the powdered mix made was not enough to wash down the peanut butter on a wheat biscuit, let alone the rest of the meal. The spice shortbread for dessert was delicious. The pretzels were like pretzels. Good, but nothing special. I left the packet of accessories, including Tabasco sauce, chewing gum, Taster’s Choice coffee, matches, a wet wipe and toilet paper, in Boston to save a few ounces in my pack.
This was an experiment I was glad I tried. MREs would be more appropriate for a canoe trip, where weight was not such a concern. Mine was government issued, but if you want to try MREs you can buy commercially produced versions of MREs on-line. Nitro-Pak.com offers a variety of twelve big eater meals for $82.99. Those look very similar to what I had. A big drawback to buying these commercially is the lack of selection – you cannot choose the entrée or side dishes and if you are a vegetarian you will wind up hungry.
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The cost of an MRE is a lot less expensive than that of the sumptuous meal we enjoyed at the Winding Brook Bistro in Johnson after our Saturday hike in June, 2008. That meal was much more relaxing and followed a warm shower at Elmore State Park. For the gourmet food we got, that meal was a good value, but it would not have been readily available to someone, such as earlylite, who is staying on the trail.
About the author:
Mark Warren, aka amclthiker, has been section hiking the Long Trail with the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club as a series, mostly of dayhikes, since October 2006. The group has been jumping all around the State, but they have completed most of the northern and southern ends of the trail. Twelve people have taken part in the series, so far, but there are usually only have four or five people on any given hike. They average about fifteen miles per hike. This is an on-going series that will not end once Mark or others complete the trail end-to-end. Newcomers with suitable hiking experience are very welcome to take part in the series.
Mark has been leading hiking and backpacking trips for the AMC since 2001. Two of his children grew up and went to college in Vermont. He lived there for about four years and served as a Boy Scout leader. Mark is an attorney, licensed to practice in Vermont. He has not practiced law in Vermont for almost fifteen years and his license there has been on voluntary inactive status since he returned to Boston.
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Great article amclthiker, though I am not a hiker I used to eat these meals with my buddies from the military when we would go camping. They used to tell me stories about creating MRE bombs out of canteens, the heating element and Tabasco sauce. I look forward to more of your posts.
I tried a breakfast entree from an MRE when I was backpacking on the Long Trail last weekend. I think the word that best describes the omelet with ham is “vile”. I did not have one of the heat packs that come with MREs, so I boiled the packet for several minutes. The cooking method was not the problem. The contents of the packet were the problem. I opened the packet and found something that looked and tasted like brown styrofoam. I dug a hole almost a foot deep and buried the part that I did not spit into the fireplace. I do not want any innocent animal to be subjected to that stuff.
Another place to get MRE’s cheaper than the sources you list is at http://www.thereadystore.com/ about 70$ for 12 meals.. or if you go the freeze dried route you can get a can which has 10 servings in it for 20-30$
Another great place to find MREs is eBay, Though the price has significantly increased to due the several natural disasters in recent years. A case can still be readily had for $50-60. But in buying genuine government issue MREs make sure to check the dates and the “inspection” dates on them as well as many dealers sell then for re-enactment or display purposes only. Also check around your local military surplus stores, although in my experience the prices have been a good bit higher there than online.
The pictures displayed are not of a military issued MRE. Perhaps there is a diference between government and military issued but this has several features that you won’t see like this in what I’d call a “real” MRE. Some things that are imediately obvious are: white storeshelf spoon, jelly packet should have the same package type as the main course, that shiny metal package on the lower right would not be there, coffee and some other parts are random generic types. I don’t know how these mixed MRE’s are made but watching locals dumpster-diving for unused MRE parts in countries I’ve been in will prevent me from purchasing these. Perhaps some of the parts are just cost saving options from the supplier of the MRE parts though… For example, that grape jelly packet belongs in an A-Ration and would be much cheaper than the actual MRE version. If those red and black things are hot/barbeque sauce then they came from an A-Rat too. Both of those are commonly thrown out in bulk though so it doesn’t rule out the possibilty that you’ve bought something that was pulled out of the garbage in Korea or somewhere and then shipped back to the states for re-sale. I’ve seen much more enginuitive/disturbing schemes than that.
If this doesn’t seem likely, I’ll simply tell you honestly that 2/3′rds or more of the food that is delivered to the army either goes straight to the trash or is picked over by the soldiers for candy or whatever and the rest gets chucked. Doing KP in Korea my experience is that the garbage man will take the garbage bags from you, dump them out, put the useful stuff back into the bag (and into the cab of the garbage truck) and shovel the rest into the back of the truck.
MRE’s are a small volume of high energy food in a rugged and bulky package. If you eat them a while your body will expect small portions and adapt. For example, a half serving of oatmeal with sugar, powdered milk, and oil would be like an MRE. It won’t fill you up but it has all the energy and protein of a large bowl of diet-ized oatmeal. It likely has better nutrition for sustained work as well.
MRE’s aren’t the best for all situations for sure but some things to point out are: They are not dehydrated (hence ready to eat) so they are heavy with water. They are not imediately filling because they have reduced water so you have to drink to digest them. Most importantly, you will not be satisfied just sitting down and eating one like it’s diner time. What I did was take all snack items out and put them into my leg cargo pocket. This way I could always grab something right now when I had only a minute before we had to move again (like when the boss stops to use the radio). Doing this snacking made up for the fact that I was older and slower than some of the other soldiers. When they had to stop and make their coolaid for more sugar I would have time to scarf down the main MRE part cold and keep my energy steady. Perhaps have time to put my feet up while they diddled around with their MRE heater.
Buck has it right. You just have to know how to use them right. MRE’s have a lot of little tricks to getting what you want out of them. I’m not in the military but I’ve been eating MRE’s with Civil Air Patrol SAR operations, and unfortunately when hurricane IKE came through Houston last year. I managed to store up a few boxes for free because they were literally being given out to anybody that wanted them. I like to go backpacking and they can really make a difference.
or the pound cakes.
Here’s some tips. Preparation is key so before you go out take everything apart and plan out your meals. Now not all MRE’s come with the good stuff (tobasco, peanut butter, pound cake, COFFEE) but when you have 4 or 5 packages open you can pick and choose. Take the accessory packet and open that up to. Now consolidate to save space. Put all the boxes together in your pack, only bring 1 spoon, consolidate the instant coffees salt sugar creamer and such into one bag. Bring water proof matches or a lighter because the MRE matches suck. Forget the toilet paper that it comes with because it ends up taking more room that it’s worth. You’ll find by getting rid of the excess and packing thoughtfully that you’ll get 5 meals out of the space it takes for two.
For breakfast: have the fruits like peaches or apples. Peanut butter crackers
Lunch: One of your entrees heated by the heater, tabasco sauce will always help.
Dinner: Another entree with a one of the side packages. You can heat this with the heater, but if you’ve already got a pot, cook it on the fire because it will come out hotter.
Snacks: During the hike take all of the little things like the sugar cookies, pretzels, dried cranberries and keep them on your person. every hour or so chomp on those and get energy back up so you wont be “famished” by the end.
The flat bread I think is just horrible, you have to drink so much water to get it to go down. Take it with you though because it’s excellent bait for fish or ducks (if that’s your thing). That’s where the barbeque sauce and salt and pepper come in.
The spoon is also a great fire starter. If you have a lighter and you dont want to burn your hands or spend a lot of time getting a fire going that spoon will have a nice flame on it for about 10 minutes and it sticks into the ground pretty easy.
One time I made Mac and Cheese in a small pot. I hiked in about 4 Oz of noodles and boiled them with local stream water (which was pretty clean from the Edwards Aquifer springs around here), strained the noodles, added one fortified cheese packet with the creamer then added drinking water to creamy mixture. It was actually pretty good. Plus if you’re bringing any meals that come with “in tomato sauce” consider bringing spaghetti noodles because there’s usually more sauce than noodles. Add noodles = more carb energy.
If you’re in bear country then I would just burn the MRE trash because it burns very well on a hot fire, just be careful with the heater because that has a pretty interesting chemical reaction when burned.
Well I could probably keep writing but the whole fun is trying things out for yourself. Have fun and be safe.