Post by jimcobb on Aug 4, 2023 21:21:42 GMT
For those not familiar with the term, MRE stands for Meal, Ready to Eat, and refers to a military ration that’s become fairly popular among preppers and survivalists. Where dehydrated and freeze-dried foods require the addition of water to prepare, an MRE is, as the name indicates, ready to eat right out of the package. That said, the palatability is usually increased by heating, made easy by the inclusion of a small heater in the MRE.
Technically, military MREs are illegal to sell to civilians. However, many of the MRE manufacturers have taken to doing civilian versions they can sell on the open market.
The standard civilian MRE will have a number of components, including:
Entrée
Cracker or bread, usually with some sort of spread
Side dish
Dessert
Candy
Utensil pack
Condiments
Heater
The downsides of MREs are the price and the weight, both of which are relatively high. They aren’t bad options, but you won’t want to carry a bunch of them around with you in your pack.
Here’s a great video from Wendell Adams covering a couple of different ways to put together a homemade MRE. Now, to be fair there are components here that do require some sort of preparation, such as boiling water to cook noodles. But you can easily substitute for options that don’t need that step.
I don’t look at these sorts of meal kits as being for backpacking. Think instead of emergency evacuation scenarios, where you have to flee home or work with nothing more than your emergency pack. Having a couple of these full meal kits stashed away in your bag means you don’t need to stop and buy food along the way.
A few pointers as you consider what to put into your own homemade MREs.
Always toss in a plastic fork, spoon, and knife. You can get these free at fast food joints when you buy food. Or pick up a small box of mixed utensils at the store. This way, you don’t need to worry about finding something to eat with once you open the meal.
Stick with foods you know you like. This isn’t a time for experimentation. If you want to try new foods, check them out before you decide to buy them for your kits.
Vacuum sealing is best, but you can probably get by with good quality Ziploc bags and pressing as much air out as possible. Either way, I wouldn’t store these sorts of kits for more than a year before rotating out the contents.
If you can afford it, consider adding a few dollars in cash to each meal kit. If you land at a motel, you can use the cash to buy beverages, snacks, whatever.
These can be fun to assemble, once you get into the swing of it. There’s no need to go overboard and put together dozens of them. Just two or three per evacuation kit should be plenty.
Technically, military MREs are illegal to sell to civilians. However, many of the MRE manufacturers have taken to doing civilian versions they can sell on the open market.
The standard civilian MRE will have a number of components, including:
Entrée
Cracker or bread, usually with some sort of spread
Side dish
Dessert
Candy
Utensil pack
Condiments
Heater
The downsides of MREs are the price and the weight, both of which are relatively high. They aren’t bad options, but you won’t want to carry a bunch of them around with you in your pack.
Here’s a great video from Wendell Adams covering a couple of different ways to put together a homemade MRE. Now, to be fair there are components here that do require some sort of preparation, such as boiling water to cook noodles. But you can easily substitute for options that don’t need that step.
I don’t look at these sorts of meal kits as being for backpacking. Think instead of emergency evacuation scenarios, where you have to flee home or work with nothing more than your emergency pack. Having a couple of these full meal kits stashed away in your bag means you don’t need to stop and buy food along the way.
A few pointers as you consider what to put into your own homemade MREs.
Always toss in a plastic fork, spoon, and knife. You can get these free at fast food joints when you buy food. Or pick up a small box of mixed utensils at the store. This way, you don’t need to worry about finding something to eat with once you open the meal.
Stick with foods you know you like. This isn’t a time for experimentation. If you want to try new foods, check them out before you decide to buy them for your kits.
Vacuum sealing is best, but you can probably get by with good quality Ziploc bags and pressing as much air out as possible. Either way, I wouldn’t store these sorts of kits for more than a year before rotating out the contents.
If you can afford it, consider adding a few dollars in cash to each meal kit. If you land at a motel, you can use the cash to buy beverages, snacks, whatever.
These can be fun to assemble, once you get into the swing of it. There’s no need to go overboard and put together dozens of them. Just two or three per evacuation kit should be plenty.