6 ms·

Steve1989MREInfo https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA Nice!

by drmpeg 5y ago

iszomer 5y ago
I love this guy's channel. He's the only guy I've seen who has the guts to eat MRE's dated since WWII and perhaps older. The most recent I've seen was him comparing MRE's from the PRC (yes, China), Taiwan, USA, Russia, etc.
- dikei 5y ago
  I remember Steve video about China's MRE where he had stomach problem after eating. Eat some biscuit from WW1-era: totally fine, eat some chow mein from PRC's MRE: instant diarrhea
  - dmoy 5y ago
    I've had Chinese MREs, once. It was the worst food I've ever tasted. Someone in the family had a can from former prc military service. I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. They're actually not as bad now as they used to be. The new replacement for thin wheat bread is like actually edible and doesn't break your teeth.
    - dikei 5y ago
      >> I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I don't know about the Chinese, but my poor army doesn't have an official MRE. On the rare occasion that they are deployed to where they can't setup kitchens, like disaster zones: storm, flooding, etc.., the soldiers typically make do with instant noodle or ration bar until a field kitchen can be established.
      - int_19h 5y ago
        In Chechnya, the rebels have long used Snickers bars as their on-the-go food - apart from its good nutritious qualities as a trail bar, it's also easy to get in any convenience store, and doing so isn't suspicious (or wasn't until it became prevalent, anyway).
      - gruez 5y ago
        I was looking at steve's YouTube channel and there was a Honduran "MRE" which was similar to what you described: random off the shelf food with a long shelf life.
      - Ekaros 5y ago
        Same, what they give out to scouts and tiny units is essentially trekking food now. It used to be things like add water pasta or canned soup. Slight step down in my mind.
    - gruez 5y ago
      >I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. What's the TCO on using MREs for disaster prep? I did some light research a while ago and figured it was pretty pricey compared to buying traditional nonperishables (eg. instant noodles, canned vegetables, dried beans). Plus, those foods are easier to work into a conventional meal than MREs. Is there some advantage of MREs I'm missing?
      - int_19h 5y ago
        Not great. Aside from higher cost, MREs are heavy (because they contain their own water), and their shelf life is a couple of years. Freeze-dried canned food beats them for most prepping applications. The point of MREs is to have a high-calorie hot meal that can be thrown into a backpack, and then prepared and eaten in the field with minimal fuss - i.e. no need to make a fire or mess around with utensils. But even the military doesn't rely on them as soldiers' primary source of food except when necessary.
      - dmoy 5y ago
        My MREs are only to get me from point A of Seattle turned into an unnavigable pit of sludge post earthquake to point B somewhere that FEMA can get shit into. If I didn't live somewhere where half the city isn't going to dissolve and/or get tidal waved, then I probably wouldn't have MREs. I didn't have any when I lived in the Midwest. Blizzards and tornadoes, not actually much travel needs to be done in case of a natural disaster. They're contained enough that I can transport them along with water and water filtering/iodine. I should note that depending on the distance I need to travel, I have even more contained dense rations which are basically, as far as I can tell, solid cardboard consistency... food stuffs. MREs weigh a bit more, so if I'm going farther, I wouldn't take too many. For almost all other emergency I'm instead relying on staying put and eating stuff that sucks less.
      - selectodude 5y ago
        MREs self-heat. Hot food is good for morale and in a disaster situation, instant noodles might be "noodle crackers".
    - jandrewrogers 5y ago
      The US military invests a lot of R&D in their MREs, and they have improved monotonically over the decades. Even a few decades ago they were actually pretty decent, aside from a couple famous outliers. A couple of the meals invariably are a total miss, and everyone avoids them, but that feedback gets back to the R&D center and they try something different. Having the best possible food in the field, under the circumstances, is viewed as critical for morale as a matter of doctrine by the US military and they invest a lot in it. Soldiers, in turn, are pretty creative at getting the most out of the MRE contents. In some parts of the world, MREs are recognized as currency.
- flenserboy 5y ago
  The oldest ration — not MRE — I've seen him eat was from the Boer War; the oldest piece of food was from the US Civil War. Steve1989 is a treasure.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  > MRE's dated since WWII I may have looked into this during pandemic boredom. Ahem. Consensus seems to be that the biggest risk (as long as the can is normal) is metallic leaching from acidic foods. Old canned fruit or tomato sauces? Maybe skip.
- sakopov 5y ago
  I remember watching one of his older videos where he zoomed in on a package as he was trying to open it. I couldn't help but notice the very bad tremor in his hands. Made me wonder if the toxins in old MREs he's been eating have somehow contributed to that. Nonetheless, a very interesting channel for sure.
  - jterrys 5y ago
    No, not at all. Steve is just very excited. Most of the stuff that he eats is uncommonly hard to get and can cost upwards to hundreds of dollars, especially if its in any good shape.
dghughes 5y ago
I watch his videos they're great fun to watch especially the expired kits. Your link to his channel makes more sense than the NYT article which picked one seemingly at random it is one of his videos from 2017.
JimTheMan 5y ago
Nothing quite like eating food from the civil war. Oh, and he loves to smoke old cigarettes. The joy is palpable.
bobthepanda 5y ago
And Emmymade: https://www.youtube.com/c/emmymade https://www.youtube.com/c/emmymade Emmymade is a more general food/cooking channel though. I do enjoy it, mostly because she'll give anything a chance once and isn't dismissive of food she isn't familiar with or doesn't prefer.
senkora 5y ago
His videos make me oddly happy
- GongOfFour 5y ago
  Came here to say as I was reading this I was thinking "They sure as hell better call out Steve1989MREInfo" and then I got so much joy seeing his photo in the middle of the article.
yissp 5y ago
let's get this out onto a tray
friedman23 5y ago
His Vietnam survival kit video is amazing
BadassFractal 5y ago
Steve is a national treasure, I've been a happy supporter on Patreon for years. I love how perfectly consistent he is with his catchphrases.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Steve1989MREInfo https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA Nice!

by drmpeg 5y ago

Steve1989MREInfo https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA Nice!

iszomer 5y ago

I love this guy's channel. He's the only guy I've seen who has the guts to eat MRE's dated since WWII and perhaps older. The most recent I've seen was him comparing MRE's from the PRC (yes, China), Taiwan, USA, Russia, etc.

dikei 5y ago
I remember Steve video about China's MRE where he had stomach problem after eating. Eat some biscuit from WW1-era: totally fine, eat some chow mein from PRC's MRE: instant diarrhea
- dmoy 5y ago
  I've had Chinese MREs, once. It was the worst food I've ever tasted. Someone in the family had a can from former prc military service. I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. They're actually not as bad now as they used to be. The new replacement for thin wheat bread is like actually edible and doesn't break your teeth.
  - dikei 5y ago
    >> I don't know what it is, but maybe the Chinese army deploys so infrequently (almost never?) that they place zero priority on their MREs. I don't know about the Chinese, but my poor army doesn't have an official MRE. On the rare occasion that they are deployed to where they can't setup kitchens, like disaster zones: storm, flooding, etc.., the soldiers typically make do with instant noodle or ration bar until a field kitchen can be established.
    - int_19h 5y ago
      In Chechnya, the rebels have long used Snickers bars as their on-the-go food - apart from its good nutritious qualities as a trail bar, it's also easy to get in any convenience store, and doing so isn't suspicious (or wasn't until it became prevalent, anyway).
    - gruez 5y ago
      I was looking at steve's YouTube channel and there was a Honduran "MRE" which was similar to what you described: random off the shelf food with a long shelf life.
    - Ekaros 5y ago
      Same, what they give out to scouts and tiny units is essentially trekking food now. It used to be things like add water pasta or canned soup. Slight step down in my mind.
  - gruez 5y ago
    >I begrudgingly eat US MREs once every 3-5 years for about a week or so as I replenish my one case of MREs for earthquake supplies. What's the TCO on using MREs for disaster prep? I did some light research a while ago and figured it was pretty pricey compared to buying traditional nonperishables (eg. instant noodles, canned vegetables, dried beans). Plus, those foods are easier to work into a conventional meal than MREs. Is there some advantage of MREs I'm missing?
    - int_19h 5y ago
      Not great. Aside from higher cost, MREs are heavy (because they contain their own water), and their shelf life is a couple of years. Freeze-dried canned food beats them for most prepping applications. The point of MREs is to have a high-calorie hot meal that can be thrown into a backpack, and then prepared and eaten in the field with minimal fuss - i.e. no need to make a fire or mess around with utensils. But even the military doesn't rely on them as soldiers' primary source of food except when necessary.
    - dmoy 5y ago
      My MREs are only to get me from point A of Seattle turned into an unnavigable pit of sludge post earthquake to point B somewhere that FEMA can get shit into. If I didn't live somewhere where half the city isn't going to dissolve and/or get tidal waved, then I probably wouldn't have MREs. I didn't have any when I lived in the Midwest. Blizzards and tornadoes, not actually much travel needs to be done in case of a natural disaster. They're contained enough that I can transport them along with water and water filtering/iodine. I should note that depending on the distance I need to travel, I have even more contained dense rations which are basically, as far as I can tell, solid cardboard consistency... food stuffs. MREs weigh a bit more, so if I'm going farther, I wouldn't take too many. For almost all other emergency I'm instead relying on staying put and eating stuff that sucks less.
    - selectodude 5y ago
      MREs self-heat. Hot food is good for morale and in a disaster situation, instant noodles might be "noodle crackers".
  - jandrewrogers 5y ago
    The US military invests a lot of R&D in their MREs, and they have improved monotonically over the decades. Even a few decades ago they were actually pretty decent, aside from a couple famous outliers. A couple of the meals invariably are a total miss, and everyone avoids them, but that feedback gets back to the R&D center and they try something different. Having the best possible food in the field, under the circumstances, is viewed as critical for morale as a matter of doctrine by the US military and they invest a lot in it. Soldiers, in turn, are pretty creative at getting the most out of the MRE contents. In some parts of the world, MREs are recognized as currency.
flenserboy 5y ago
The oldest ration — not MRE — I've seen him eat was from the Boer War; the oldest piece of food was from the US Civil War. Steve1989 is a treasure.
ethbr0 5y ago
> MRE's dated since WWII I may have looked into this during pandemic boredom. Ahem. Consensus seems to be that the biggest risk (as long as the can is normal) is metallic leaching from acidic foods. Old canned fruit or tomato sauces? Maybe skip.
sakopov 5y ago
I remember watching one of his older videos where he zoomed in on a package as he was trying to open it. I couldn't help but notice the very bad tremor in his hands. Made me wonder if the toxins in old MREs he's been eating have somehow contributed to that. Nonetheless, a very interesting channel for sure.
- jterrys 5y ago
  No, not at all. Steve is just very excited. Most of the stuff that he eats is uncommonly hard to get and can cost upwards to hundreds of dollars, especially if its in any good shape.

dghughes 5y ago

I watch his videos they're great fun to watch especially the expired kits. Your link to his channel makes more sense than the NYT article which picked one seemingly at random it is one of his videos from 2017.

JimTheMan 5y ago

Nothing quite like eating food from the civil war. Oh, and he loves to smoke old cigarettes. The joy is palpable.

bobthepanda 5y ago

And Emmymade: https://www.youtube.com/c/emmymade https://www.youtube.com/c/emmymade Emmymade is a more general food/cooking channel though. I do enjoy it, mostly because she'll give anything a chance once and isn't dismissive of food she isn't familiar with or doesn't prefer.

senkora 5y ago

His videos make me oddly happy

GongOfFour 5y ago
Came here to say as I was reading this I was thinking "They sure as hell better call out Steve1989MREInfo" and then I got so much joy seeing his photo in the middle of the article.

yissp 5y ago

let's get this out onto a tray

friedman23 5y ago

His Vietnam survival kit video is amazing

BadassFractal 5y ago

Steve is a national treasure, I've been a happy supporter on Patreon for years. I love how perfectly consistent he is with his catchphrases.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]