1906 US Army Emergency Ration Preserved Survival Food Testing 24 Hour MRE Review

[Music] [Music] this is a December 1906 date of production US Army emergency ration prepared by the American compressed food company out of Passaic New Jersey the weighs one pound four point four ounces or 580 grams and it contains about 2,000 calories calculated to subside one man one day maintaining his full strength and vigor not to be open except by order of an officer or an extremity directions bread and meat component may be eaten dry or stirred into cold water or one cake may be boiled five minutes or longer in three pints of water and resulting soup season to taste or one cake may be boiled in one pint of water for five minutes making a thick porridge to be eaten hot or cold when cold it may be sliced and fried if bacon or other fat is available chocolate component may be eaten tri or made into liquid by placing the chocolate in a tin cup held in hot water after melting pouring slowly one pint boiling water to each cake it may be boiled after mixing who that can this thing is a hundred and twelve years old and it's in exceptional condition nearly flawless just a couple little scuffs I mean pretty much this is one of the most amazing finds now the US Army emergency ration was produced by two different companies the American compressed food company out of Passaic New Jersey also armoring company out of Kansas City Kansas look at this it's a little bit different than the other one us inspected and passed by the Department of Agriculture this one was produced 1918 and was sent off to France during World War one one of the million or so but they never made it to France in time before the war ended this ration was really only used in limited numbers during World War one the main ration that was used actually was the u.s. reserve ration we'll get to that in a minute you can see that this can is about 20 to 25 percent smaller than the American compressed food company version there were three different kinds of rations used in the trenches of World War one by the American Expeditionary Forces outside of hot meals from field kitchens any sort of actual ration pack there were three of them there was the trench ration which was a huge tin like an actual tin box filled with canned food hard bread and various sides and certain things to pretty much make it a mobile field kitchen there are none left there may be like an actual tin box or two left somewhere other than that they're gone so the trench ration was one and then there was the US Army emergency ration and that was the one prepared by Armour and company out of Kansas City Kansas the one prepared by American compressed food company these things were utilized until procurements were exhausted same thing with this but most of them that were produced didn't actually make it to France and time before the war ended the singing has 1492 calories it weighs 15 point 4 ounces or 436 grams this is the reserve ration it's what eventually turned into the sea ration or US Army field ration see into the variations of the sea ration up until 1980 it all started from the reserve ration that weighs two and three-quarter pounds it has 3349 calories and you know this is actually a new corn beef now here's the real deal hard bread 8 ounces the United States quartermaster Corps cut the send out do that it's a soldered tin rectangular container you get a pound of corned beef the condiment can hold you Coffee sugar and salt which was also part this thing evolved throughout the 20s and 30s and turned into the US Army field ration type-c by 1938 the US Army emergency ration was taken out of the u.s. military's list of actual rations used by 1922 alright to sum it up real fast for the pros and cons this thing weighs two and three-quarter pounds the average soldier was carrying two of these around and his haversack all the time that's five and a half pounds that's quite a bit of weight it's also a lot of calories that's a good amount of food the emergency ration weighs just under a pound it has 1492 calories it's pros really it's it's light calorie dense compact long shelf-life but then it's cons not enough were produced in World War one and available and then just overall more complex production and only two plants two actual companies were capable of making it the reserve ration this thing is easier to make more factories could make it could be more easily mass-produced but this is heavy and bulky five-and-a-half pounds for two days worth of food when it's still just under two pounds four to date days worth of that but probably about 40% of the calories but it's filling and sustainable for a few days you'll be ok restricted calorie 24-hour ration that is ahead of its time built to last and with some relative morale boosting components pemmican that's not too bad with your various preparation options along with some chocolate and that derived from the idea of the British emergency ration Field Service which goes back as far as the late 1800s back in 1897 May of 1897 the first calorie out of Fort Sill Oklahoma tested the first reserve ration back then the hard bread they were just in paper cardboard boxes and you know rain would make them turn to mush gas attacks and rats and bugs and whatnot and just getting trampled on so they were tinned primarily to protect against gas tax the haversack ration this was your original nomenclature this one's a reproduction I've only ever seen one in existence a real one this instead of being like a waxed it box that can get squashed and you know not super easy to produce actually you know mass-produced instead they would just have large portions of coffee sugar and salt and then allot them for the soldier to store in their condiment can and these things were typically ditched and a lot of times ground coffee was replaced with instant coffee but we're gonna be checking out the reserve ration and it's by-the-book manner at least the first time around now in order to give soldiers experience with this ration and to maintain production quotas at an economically feasible rate for the armored plant to stay in business it was suggested to produce an average of three per soldier for use on training missions per year and this proposition was rejected by the US Army and the u.s. ended up adopting the reserve ration for mass production instead the hard bread tins weren't too difficult to make this compressed and vacuum-sealed pemmican and chocolate super advanced for a hundred years ago but the US Army figured troops shouldn't be compelled to use this saying you know simply become familiar with it it was saw that it was time to use it only in war and in emergency so this idea led to a shortage of these during World War one they really could have used more this ration cost me $1,400 this one cost me 768 and it's in better shape much better shape look at that yellow paint they double coated it on the seams as a pull-tab it's a beaut we're gonna open it up there was never a key attached to this that I can find no soldering marks or anything like that all right here goes nothing let's loop that tab face is oh man it's pretty tough it's definitely a rash and you don't want this key to fail on you but we'll get this thing up and whoa for that piece of cotton one bit at a time here almost okay I think this is it through the condition so this paper packet no idea what that packet is but this looks like something you pull to get this all out boy I hope this works oops and that is actually the pemmican that I cut into and cannot get this what is supposed to be a fabric kind of like a strip of fabric you pull up that lifts up the the pemmican let's see if we can get this out or is this just gonna be a strip that what happens here that did nothing let's just pull out that whole thing which may have freed up some space hold on nice it's much better Wow look at that that is pemmican and in pretty good looking shape on oh I know that kind of smell it's not so bad pull off this old paper gosh I can't believe that paper is 112 it's just like a fine weak paper dad whoa you see it's the one of the grain that is total pemmican and does not smell that bad I'm not even joking this seems so well preserved it's almost unbelievable man what is this that is really cool season to taste the one thing is this soup season the taste could this just be salt I'm gonna go back to that this is just what an experience can you leave this and that is salt and that's some of the best salt I've ever tasted because it's so old all right so let's izl some of this out you know well that's coming out pretty easy and this isn't so bad Wow wheat powder what a great amount of food you know this would be extremely filling I would say and look at that that's one of the cakes so we're gonna go with this for a starter of sorts I'm gonna figure this out here you know you can eat it dry of course and it's all ready to eat technically if you didn't have the capability or the luxury to heat this up once I remove this one it might be easy to get the rest out yeah look at that that comes out easy that's aluminum foil you know that was really expensive back then see that alright so let's get that last bit out of there so it's like a cheap fine paper that would hold it together each wheat and grain cake there's one right there it just smells like Europe really reminds me of the smell of fish food that's that is exactly what that smells like fish food Wow not fish or dried fish just food for fish let's move along here ooh okay and that is I believe that just didn't work out too well right there it feels like it's pepper and it's a smaller amount in like a seasoned packet and then what flew up here is I believe the chocolate you can tell that's chocolate like just barely oh let me just let's get this out onto a tray thanks okay that is chocolate right in there oh man that's so cool hold on I gotta take a tiny bite right now hold on it's not bad I'm letting it settle on my tongue okay I just consumed a small amount of chocolate from 1906 here hold on the chocolate okay it smells like the bullion powder it's beef powder you know actual ol beef turning to the powder mixed with you know wheat but I mean it smells like that that's off-putting completely completely bloomed sorry you know what what a strange chocolate little bit spicy with whole pieces of cocoa they're not fully mixed in that's what that was I felt something Korres once moisture hits it again it really gets its you know normal chocolate appearance back to a degree that doesn't taste bad at all I mean you're definitely picking up the meat and wheat components undertones but yeah they kind of mixed together even sitting next to each other for 112 years again with a spicy flavor like a relative amount of spicy I'm not joking it almost seems like there's a small amount of cayenne in here I mean I've had hot chocolate like that sorry I'm like eating asleep weird mm-hmm how strange I mean there are so many people with that would love to try this I know it I mean it's fine chocolate that had little bits of you know cocoa or cacao in that cacao it's like little not nibs you know there's little things that are like cacao nibs you'll have a certain chocolate not that chunky but very tiny pieces of cacao and then something relatively spicy wrapped in aluminum foil gosh there's actual pieces that still look like chocolate you see those darker kind of shiny bits like that actually still kind of looks like chocolate look at that let's save this or that chocolate it actually looks fine get hidden layers okay so we got to the bottom of that one that was fast okay so it goes in layers you'd pretty much for each meal have a meat and grain cake and then a chocolate cake and when I say cake that is you know each one of these little foil or paper wrapped allotments of food it's it's a perfectly preserved ration when it comes down to what it is I don't think I really don't think that it could be in any better shape really this is incredible I don't feel like the pemmican is spoiled I think that's fine I think every bit of that is edible I'm gonna go all out with this thing I'm gonna eat what is this anyway is this this this is pepper and I'm gonna figure it out pretty soon and it's coated in chocolate let's keep this off a hop there we go cool Oh I went and put my nose rate and I believe black pepper yep that's what that is that used to be black pepper I think yeah that's that's black pepper and you know that could be why the chocolate tastes spicy we're gonna go down the line with preparations for both I'm gonna eat some more of this chocolate dry but then I'm also going to make a what they are pretty much suggesting maybe eat and dry or made in the liquid by placing the chocolate and a tin cup held in hot water after melting pouring slowly one pint of boiling water they're pretty much telling you to do a makeshift double boiler method with your tin and we got one of those here you see this mess kit this one's a beaut Rock Island armory 1910 Rock Island armory 1908 tin cup okay we're back with another episode where you never know what you're gonna be having when you come over to my place for dinner look at that peas but I actually kind of want a piece of this just right off the bat look look at that thing yeah it smells like fish food of course I'm apprehensive to eat a piece of this infantry cavalry equipment board test it out one of these things when it was like 20 years old the pemmican component was perfectly fresh and the chocolate was somewhat bloomed but otherwise still edible you can clearly see coarse grain just barely any kind of real shade or a difference of color or anything near that stuff I mean it really does it seriously smells like fish food leaked and probably not too far off an actual you know food quality I wouldn't doubt it whatsoever I mean like the other one says approved by the way this is something like approved by the Department of that US Agriculture US Department of Agriculture approved just off the top of my head here I just can't really that's exactly what I figured tastes like dirt wait sorry a little more clean ringing dirt you're not supposed to eat this dry I mean I say you can eat it dry but there's quite a bit of flavor actually you can really taste the wheat that's gross Oh like the beef bad yeah that's actually you know what no I'd say it's cruising it's not bad it's gross but it's edible I think I keep saying it smells like fish food but yeah so much chef that I didn't there's so much green like bits of green all on my tongue like green I don't want to chew because you just crack your teeth on it it needs to soften up with hot water if you didn't have hot water you could soak it in cold water and that would be good enough I would do that before eating it dry this is like the world war 1 equivalent of eating a food packet long range patrol freeze-dried Maine's dry so this would be kind of like hardcore even back then just on its own you wouldn't eat it dry unless you were just downing it with water right afterwards because you were having to be on the move you know and you were in combat like they say in extremity like say even your officer got killed and you're on the move that's extremity enough you know say if he's not eaten for a couple days you bust one of these things out but again it's so earthy with grain an earthy grain with a dull beef flavor sorry for talking too mouthful but I really want taste and give you the immediate too bad these weren't produced in higher numbers because you know during before World War one and stocked up they would have done well to do that this would have been a great ration for that war it just never really got used it did but not nearly enough because uh sorry I just so much coarse grain I got no water it's like it just makes your heart race eating something that old every time I mean that you know what work to buy this probably thing kind of numb to it like I getting in a world war two rash and it's even a little bit on the iffy side and it won't freak me out too much but this it never fails like that field service from 1899 manages really broke up in their weight this is also kind of spicy I think the pepper permeated through everything this seems fine okay here's how you do it visual smell and then taste test in that order again very earthy this is edible this is this is Zenon just kinda edible like that emergency ration field service I don't think I'll ever do anything like that again this doesn't come close to that on easy this is fine that's actually somewhat flavorful toasted grain with that kinda bland Dell beef powder that doesn't have enough sodium but they give you that sodium they give you that packet salt this is incredible this actually isn't bad so really oh sorry I barely got by on that oh yeah it's breaking up so much dude the toast grain I'm really trying to get a good solid flavor on it and it's just such an earthy strong toasted wheat its coarsely ground there really aren't any dried pieces that are you know just breaking apart before I can even get to my mouth but you could eat it with a spoon dry yeah at hot water we're made of porridge like you're saying up but that's really good this is really going far beyond my expectations on Wow what is that that's just yeah like there's tons of grain I think that's just like a hard piece that you can barely see there but you know like definitely not recommended to eat dry it's not good on your teeth and again it's just it's so brittle E and you can see is that grain here I don't know hard is a rock and I'm telling you know that's like wheat it's starting to soften up or I don't know what it is but anyway the point is you can technically eat this dry but it's like eating a hard cereal that needs to really soften up it's like eating uncooked oats or something with you know dried beef powder added I'm still wrapping my mind around all this and trying to go on a piece of chocolate it's just hmm little bits of cacao here's aluminum let's not eat that but this look at that look sorry I once you get moisture on it okay and we're back it's been about 30 minutes and I feel perfectly fine let's make some soup it's just awesome this piece though that hmm I better throw the three pints in there okay so we've got some water heating up then I'm gonna add that pemmican one cake may be boiled five minutes or longer in three pints of water and resulting soup season to taste boiled for five minutes or longer okay so the pot is at a nice little simmer that looks good so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna add about two-thirds because that's two pints not three I'm gonna save some of this for my collection like a souvenir that looks good really doesn't smell too bad cannot find my mess kit spoon so I just got a spoon from the drawer in the kitchen looks look at that soup you can kind of see the color you know like there's the the beef bullion part and then the grain and how its separated there's still some beef in that powder part may be boiled five minutes or longer we'll let it boil for a little bit longer check out that foam here this really isn't so bad it's not even all that weird to me really this is just an extremely well preserved ration that is incredibly old and this is just an astounding overall food discovery when it comes down to food storage a vacuum sealed container that was a hundred and twelve years old that stored food that well to where you could make this porridge stuff and not stink up a room somebody asked me like what is that what am i cooking here I'd say you're cooking something old okay so what we're gonna do let that boil for a little bit there's just simmering away or boiling away or whatever you want to call it I got more on a rolling boil decided to really step it up a notch here it's been like this for about one minute and it doesn't smell too bad has his boils he'd really smell it I mean it doesn't seem like it smells too far off from what it really is yeah that's interesting oh the direct steam is not too bad again just a foodie kind of steam you know just really let's get a good look at this ooh I think I need a paper towel all right let's get a good look at this just an earthy grain and cheap beef kind of stew it does not smell spoiled it doesn't give me any kind of gag reflex or anything like that it's been boiling for about seven or eight minutes maybe and I'm gonna let it boil for at least ten free up that mess kit save this that's like gold seriously this is a valuable nearly priceless really okay so I've taken this down to about a simmer it's been about 15 minutes smells like something's cookin that's a bunch of soup that grain really actually gosh that's so it's just pretty much like a grain porridge you know or soup with a beef broth as you can see breaks down essentially and cooks and look at that kind of boiled off to the side it's just start getting weird I'm gonna let that cool off for a second here let's try a little bit just for starters here and just smells very grainy like a strong toasted green again but even more amplified and the broth itself is just criminally underseasoned you know I mean just flavor-wise it's just taste like that that's like a combination of sewage water and like a grain tea you know like some kind of weird you're trying to quit drinking coffee and you try out these like coffee wannabe grain soluble drinks and they all taste kind of weird this reminds me of that like health food store I can't put on oh it's just a it's a grain broth with like hardly any real flavor to it the grain has rehydrated and this stuff is I think pretty much ready well as ready as it's gonna get and I haven't seasoned it you know I'm not going to use any of the pepper but I will use some of that salt so I'm gonna do that yeah this is pretty cool because this ration is still edible and to the point where I'm not too nervous I'm apprehensive you know it's just going against instincts I guess the grain dancing is awkward to hold the grain is near flavorless but it's like cooked you know as a nice texture you have to look at otherwise it's gonna crack your teeth you're not gonna actually process it very well I mean even though it was roasted grain I just it would just probably be rough on your system how much of this am I really gonna actually eat I wore the wrong shirt for this thing okay so gotta say wait a few steps up from the emergency ration field service when it comes down to being palatable it's a little bit more advanced it's a lot more advanced because this is properly stored it's a vacuum-sealed ration it's under five percent moisture content overall which is still kind of high well this reminds me of a Russian ration with some of the stuff you get maybe like the Russian mountain ration some of the breakfast grain cereals that you can get they're dried they're the closest thing I've ever had this and that's so much more normal and palatable it has salt speaking of salt will add some let's add some flavor to this a little bit of salt probably his long way lips oh that was way too much oh let's just add some salt much-needed salt to this bland soup live it up here porridge stuff oh that works wonders with the flavor it's just a very interesting grain soup porridge it's beef powder that's just dried and to the point where it really just turns into bullion like beef stock and that's pretty much what it is and then mixed with green and that's it it tasted it actually oddly enough to make better dry but then I was worried about cracking a tooth you know I think here's the thing caught on the roof of my mouth sorry this would definitely do the trick linear it was very filling in 1492 calories for the one that was smaller than this you know by 20 to 25% and this is I would say undoubtedly a solid 2,000 calorie overall I just keep going back for it and I'm using a house spoon because I am not joking when that was boiling I'm looking around everywhere and I cannot find my mask it spoons which I'm kind of glad because I was just using it like two weeks ago eating a bead in it that 1917 spoon just smells and tastes so off it actually makes this seem pretty normal I think that would have really taken away from this as an experience so I'm pretty glad I'm more normal mmm you know a nice house spoon a ration from December 1906 sitting in the pot I don't know it's heavy I'll say that it's just like if I were eating this in a survival situation keep street food our eating this in a survival situation I'd definitely be wanting to sit down you know like I'm just standing here in the corner of a room like a really weird dude eating old food look at that hmm yeah it's just all green it's like green cereal and beef stock I'm not too excited or thrilled about the actual sooth part but the porridge or you know the grain this is really good you know this is actually I could have set it in the mess kit thing it's just it's all this soup the porridge will be better than that thing this pot that's gonna be good for the soup I think I just don't know I guess I'm gonna have to use in there pop for what I do the porridge which I think might be in like a couple days or something let's see how I feel from this it's one of those things you just kind of need to gauge you know you kind of go along go as he long pretty much go as he eat little bits it doesn't seem too bad well I'm just gonna bring this back over for a minute this is a truly amazing historical piece that would have just probably brought it away you know who knows what would happen this thing I mean it's it's somewhere nobody knows what's inside of it nobody learns anything all right so back over here tell much there is it really just portions out and you can see how there's this like bullion low in sodium you can add the sodium as you need it you may not want a whole bunch of sodium it may be critically low on water and who knows what your situation may be probably some of the most dire of survival situations were occurring if this thing was used hmm like 1918 era war survival I mean really who knows what kind of if it just had to have been so brutal and bizarre but this it's not super appetizing it's just like a gross beef cereal a watery raw sewage beef cereal flavor mmm that like could really use some onion powder and I mean I should be doing that you know I should just go into my spice rack and add some various stuff but that just kind of seems cheap just keep going I don't really need to keep eating more if I'm not even really describing it you describe we just have a very small like I don't need to put myself through a huge bite here anything yeah it's just a a wheat cereal sorry for showing the food particles you know but I'm trying to give you an idea it's like a soft wheat cereal I can't believe it this thing was preserved man it might be not only just edible but sustainable as it ever was you know I mean this this could be just as sustainable as it was when it was initially produced I mean it could be providing just as much nutritional value or very close to it my mouth just fill allows grains stick into the roof of my mouth excuse me it's not like some horrible flavor that you know you just don't want to ever experience again or a smell that you never want to have to smell again it's not like it's just like a cheap green soup with weird look at that gross it's fat that's beef fat along the edge there I don't know what to do with this pot a sloppy look how this moves grain clouds up with the beef fat beef bullion leave everything on the set and come back over to it and and just go ahead and make some porridge and hot chocolate and then let some porridge cool down and I'm gonna slice it and fry it and bacon fat right now I gotta take it nap all right so it's been two days and I feel perfectly fine I will admit under physical exertion I did have a little bit of reduced energy but that's probably from fatigue I didn't get enough sleep the last couple days that's probably all it was this is a perfectly edible ration I had no ill effects whatsoever just potential sluggishness that's it but other than that I'm good you try and pull a little bit of a shaking trying to shake it out a little bit movement nice a four-ounce pemmican cake awesome glad i could extract one I believe it's chocolate that's sprinkled off onto the tray let's try and get the chocolate look at that chocolate in there hold on it's just still smells like the beef powder which is an interesting thing we'll talk about that in a minute what its how how the process give this with that one let's just pull the foil yeah I'm going to keep that I mean it's not very intact at all we're just gonna have to get this out got a good portion of that bar out that is so cool okay let's see the piece of chocolate will it be spicy no it's not I didn't think it would be it was the black pepper that made it spicy there's no Cayenne or anything like that in the chocolate it's just sugar and chocolate you know sugar and cocoa anything that's turned a complete powder is gonna be a perfect candidate for any kind of cooking or what-have-you look at all the different solid pieces with this ration soldiers did become familiar with it the 1906 was thoroughly tested in the field this was at the time the most advanced survival ration in the world in the summer time soldiers would go on practice marches and they would travel between four and five hundred miles they would use this ration and it was satisfactory it kept them sustained and it's not the oldest model that this thing goes back as far as 1901 and this ration was in development for years an older one was tested in 1901 by 56 men for five days in the field it was so effective that some of these guys even gained weight one and a quarter pound ration about 2,000 calories these guys probably weren't eating as much back then some of them so they actually gained some weight just add a little bit of water to this I'm very curious to see how this will just mix like that I think that's why they say to like melt it double boiler method like you really do actually almost have to melt it I'm gonna see how that goes but I am gonna mix this up too and just try some out let me just try a little spoonful this is so cool hmm it's not too bad it's really not bad I can't believe it it's the oldest hot chocolate this is the oldest chocolate I have ever consumed mmm I cannot I just I'm telling you I'm gonna have another round of that right now impeccable very smooth good quality hot chocolate I mean that was just absolutely decadent truly 100% do you like that much except this cop in there I was just kind of weird I guess I don't know what's gonna happen kind of floating around that doesn't even seem like it works oh wow it does look it totally works never mind look amazing that's melting look at that it's like I'm gonna make a one hundred and twelve year old chocolate fondue hmm that is sweet chocolate here let's get it a little bit hotter I think it needs to be we need a hot and let's scoop some more in there too pick out the aluminum because that's unhealthy you maybe just a little bit of water adding that to it would help I have a feeling that we'll look at that I need a piece of chocolate while I'm waiting here you know a lot of times when chocolate is bloomed it's just not very good this is actually good chocolate like actually such good quality and it's even good when it's bloom pretty sure it's working I think I'm gonna try that out it's delicious chocolate is 100 percent oh and it melts it just tastes like fondue chocolate a little bit gritty ever so slight little bits of chocolate still but oh this is so incredible doing fondue chocolate this is actually work and the double boiler method they suggest actually works we're gonna have that go along there for a minute oddly enough when I was melted out some of the most delicious chocolate I ever had oh and I weighed the salt it was about 21 grams and the pepper is a gram it's a pretty slim process but it works it's working just add a little bit of moisture back into this yeah Wow look at that yeah that's the way to do it added just a little bit of water and it's like chocolate syrup let's get this out of the pot and back onto this tray okay the cups cooled off a little bit that looks so good to me I don't know why that's just like total ration goodness you know that weird allure of a snack that you can't find anywhere else this is a maintenance like that's like pudding pretty much I'm gonna try a bite just like just like this it's it's melted chocolate it's like any other delicious melted chocolate hmm with absolutely nothing off-putting about the flavor actually it's strange I can't taste the pepper anymore now it was just an initial thing I don't taste that anymore and that was the black pepper that permeated into this it just made it spicy at first it was strange how that worked it's melted chocolate and starting to solidify and a little bit the lake I mean I know I'm just gonna add hot water to it but this is something I could just enjoy a little bit it's kind of like when you're baking cookies and there is the batter and you know there's been a raw egg now you don't care and you just eat a good portion of it anyway I feel like I'm just gonna be hit like this is so 112 112 years old I'm eating chocolate that has like old dried milk and it's just not appealing I mean what is this how is this not spoiled I mean that vacuum hiss was perfect it was it's just a perfectly preserved ration I just I've never read yes I'd have a perfectly preserved ration it's a hundred pickling anything really over anything really over you know say five years old is absolutely incredible fur being preserved but not this old I never would have expected it hmm okay right I got it I guess add hot water what I'm probably gonna do is just add more powder and just add hot water and mix up coca but this was fun man all right let's do that you know while that's boiling I'm just gonna see if oh wow this is gonna come out very easy I think maybe it's chocolate oh wow thanks now that last chocolate that's gonna be hard to remove like you'd have to just wedge that one out again the chocolates bloom to where it won't pull out all right so what I'm gonna do here is add a little bit of boiling water to this not too much that is rich paçoca right there I mean the chocolate is like this smooth that's Sookie smooth hot chocolate it's like I don't think there's milk solid in here I think it's just cocoa and sugar and then solidified into cubes I believe that's what it is because this is like this reminds me of Spanish trash and hot chocolate so I'm pretty sure there's no milk in there and that's why it's still good almost certain that's what's going on here and it's 50% cocoa 50% sugar and compressed into these cubes I believe that's what it is and I don't even think it's like regular bloomed chocolate because it's not rancid all there's no rancidity no nothing that's like turned or off-putting with the flavor perfectly drinkable hot chocolate I want to have a sip of this yeah it's delicious and I'm gonna add some more boiling water here let's do that I think that mixed it in like that kind of watered down now I think oh yeah it's extremely watered down now I kind of ruined it man it was good before I think the allotment that they tell you for a pint that's kind of ridiculous because this is just a few ounces and crazy how the water just really is what makes it just come back in the form I mean like watch this I mean it actually looks pretty good that piece tasted like black pepper okay so some of it still does that was from the first chunk anyway all right so it's pretty watered down now it has not nearly as much flavor I'm going to add receive that chocolate bar essentially is what that is this is all going in here there's that a little bit with water smudged how much it sticks with water it's like a chocolate paste do that it's either very little milk powder or none at all cocoa powder with sugar some of the coca part seemed to have reformed slightly and also absorbed or had a flavor transfer of the black pepper in the first cake in the second one it tastes pretty much like one percent of chocolate and that's what I could in this second round to kind of give it a little more chocolate strength yeah it's like kind of watery a lot of people consider this to be watery bland hot cocoa together these little bits of chocolate that are still not 100% mixed and that's why it's suggested to do the double boiler method we can make that chocolate you know paste essentially that way that's really good you go ahead and unwrap one of these we're gonna make some porridge did that thing it's cooked wheat you know kill them dried with the outer hole that bran removed parching it and grinding it in coarse powder and then it's cooked and steamed hand crushed and then put back in the kiln and dry it again and then parched again and to where there's no more grit the beef is fresh lean beef free of most fat Insignia its ground in a meat grinder and then put through an evaporation process Wow I just I hate to even break this up there's just a real satisfying nature about it's perfect shape I mean that is just still smells strong it has a strong smell of pepper yeah but the evaporation process the beef is put through it manages to not cook it at all and then it's carefully sifted that just feels like breaking a sandcastle so they say it can be boiled in with a pint of water so let's do that put the whole thing in there [Music] here's two minutes in has a nice green smell to it Wow when it's the porridge I feel like I wasted it as a soup as a soup it's just not that great I mean if they have ample water and you need to stretch it and you know for hydration purposes and you know if it was just a cold rainy day or something maybe the soup would be great if I added a lot more salt to it which I didn't and the soup is boiled for like 20 minutes this will be this is like three minutes in now [Applause] does not smell bad it smells mostly like grain with like a light beef and it smells better than that top layer it's weird I don't want it this gorge Wow that stuff really absorbs the water so well and well this is five minutes I think it's serious but it says five minutes it means it actually it's been seven minutes maybe I'm gonna had a tiny bit of water so it doesn't Scourge let's add that water turn up the heat again put it on the max look at that just kind of smooth it out that's as good as it's gonna look make it nice and salty oh yeah I can definitely see how it'll work once it's chilled and then sliced and fried I can't wait to do that I got bacon fat I always save bacon fat in my fridge I always have it on hand that stuff's great for cooking look at that I don't want it to squirting it's good just on that brink you know let's turn into the weirdest cooking show okay look at that it's like an awesome almost like paste yeah it's starting to like stick to the bottom of the pan that's the sign right there of a ready porridge nice and hearty all right I'm just gonna sit this Lee on this tray for a sec okay yeah it's like actually kind of smells bad it's starting to smell off again it's like it's stinking up the room in that same kind of way that the refrigerator we're smelling when I have this pot in there before and I just decided to toss it I don't know it's just not the most appealing thing in the world I just won't put it on the tray I don't know why it's like I say I guess is like the tray is the base the home base that you put the dry product on then from there you dump it in the pot so it's been like that I guess maybe with the patties we put it on the tray but this is just oh man okay so really I mean hey the salt really helped putting a fair amount ha hmm alright so the beef cooks in with it the grain even with the extensive process that goes through it's still pieces will get caught in your mouth so it's like a meat paste mixed with a somewhat coarse wheat you know that rehydrates softens up Oh what is that sound on the bottom it must be just like scraped I don't know who cares whatever it is it's it's all the same it doesn't smell too foul actually smells a little bit foul never mind you have that emanating smell in the room and it tells you this isn't appealing why just not good quality to begin with you know this is lean beef but I don't know I mean how good could it possibly be it's not like they're giving them some kind of gourmet quality beef I don't know I don't like it I really don't as a porridge it's pretty rough actually I think it's worse than gee maybe I heated it to UM okay so these things soldiers took good care of their emergency ration because if they lost it or if they took it and just ate it when they weren't supposed to they were deaf but they were actually docked pay because they had to check in with her officer routinely to do an inventory check and I've included the ration he's mashing it around alright here's the thing I don't know if I eat a lot of this the way it is right now Josh is not appealing flavor-wise it's still very just dull adult grain flavor it's almost still best dry it tasted better for some reason I don't know how but the grain itself tasted a little more like earthy natural and I'm just mashing this down it's just it molds quite nicely you can reminds me of mashed potatoes the way this is going down here I think most the problem is this isn't underseasoned hmm sorry for the wind beat by a split a metallic metal flavor dull beef again very just dull and not of good quality or just acceptable beef flavor it's just a very weak metallic beef the grain is nice has its own like I mentioned earthy quality to it you know what's that saying putting lipstick on a pig but then again bacon fast try that out okay so it's been oh I don't know maybe 45 minutes I put this porridge in the fridge the chill that looks good yeah that's working out what we're gonna do is bring enjoy some bacon fat they say you can slice it and fry it if bacon or other fat is available so that's what we're gonna do you eat the top and oh wait that never turn down a little bit or something oh it's like popping like popcorn do that normal and maybe I just have too much oil you know I'm trying to live it up here it's gotta be done right here let's throw some salt on it that'll make it better yeah oh yeah okay silly mmm you know it has a great smell of bacon that's just and look at that - salt that's the way to do it all the bacon pop it everywhere here oh I don't think it's supposed to go like that okay so let's just set in Greece in the main pot there we go you imagine how incredible this would have been in a survival situation if you happen to have bacon fat available I mean geez yeah so here's the thing when this was tested in 1901 those 56 soldiers that originally tested this for five days out in the field they were given the option at any point if they were having intestinal discomfort or any kind of issues or distaste for this food they had the option to just have their regular ration and they didn't even choose the regular ration they actually thought this was pretty good and you know they also gives you a good idea of what the regular ration must have been like because I think this is not the best food in the world a nice slow sizzle wow that really looks like a burger that one looks look at that this there's too much baking fat in this I think but it's gonna probably taste a lot better extra salt how brilliant is he I got this pan because it's blue all right let's see if like anything is happening on the bottom of this what's going on here that just breaks right up oh it is kind of like a charred patty on that side that's kind of nice All American sizzler I actually really like the way this is looking at the top real nice sleeve that see that that's a good stuff that's the way it's supposed to look you not sure if I'm going to actually be able to get a patty sheet but yeah that's just smelling worse than it did before just doesn't really seem to do much for it it's extremely unappealing and smelling by this point it's strange the bacon fat you know once it kind of cooks down a little bit it does that smell that nice smell disappears it's like the more it cooks and the more it gets goes through a process it seems doesn't matter what you do with it you know trace them up on here here goes nothing okay so here's like I guess the grand finale smells a lot better with bacon the grain is very dry by this point there's provoking but the back makes it a lot more appealing the sodium that that exceptional don't know how to sodium I threw in this really helped the bacon fat I mean if that is available it's a good survival situation is it I guess I guess maybe you'll have that on hand not regular commute you know potentially ooh chocolates getting in here by far the best way to eat this this is actually pretty good like I actually I didn't expect a lot more but didn't smell that great it doesn't it doesn't smell very good I don't know it's still not better than before of course bacon fat adds a nice smoked bacon flavor wish I had some more hot chocolate I'm a safe one chocolate and then meat grain cake cannot imagine how incredible that be very soldier that has never eaten anything like this before he imagined how just how awesome this was innovation wise to a soldier you know to see something like this I mean nobody'd probably ever seen anything that they could imagine like that it's like a lot of modern technology eastings it's you know fascinating to us now this had to have been fascinating to a soldier back then to try this out when they were in training in the summertime they're eating one of these per day or the 56 guys that ate this back in 1901 and some of them even gained weight none of them lost weight they all liked the way it tasted it tastes so low-grade until you fried and making fat the chocolate is fantastic this here I'm excited to try it doesn't taste as good again or I don't know really tastes like the patacon I'm just calling it pemmican that's what it is meat in green combined and dried and combined together into a bar that's Pelican you can rehydrate this this technology is technology developed into greater things that became greater survival rations throughout the years you know this thing was taken out of service in 1922 but a lot of the excess numbered ones that were produced and sent out the France in 1918 and they they called for four million I hope they managed to get like I think two million at least a million reduced they cost 63 and a half cents by that point I do not know what the 1906 cost to produce potentially more the technology was newer rations self was larger and potentially higher quality components this could be a better quality chocolate than that our marine company one the one that people know of or this the chocolate great morale boosting component this has an absolute permeation of the pemmican like transferred its flavor into this thoroughly with an unpleasant grain and beef powder undertone that's just really kind of wasp but then it's like I would never want to complain with something like this it's just so well this is I would bet about as good as it could possibly be for its age and for its quality which I don't know if it's quality I don't really know I think the chocolate is of great quality again the other stuff not as much I don't think it's reaction a lot of the excess numbers that were sent back to the US that were out sent out to France they came back thinking like that waste of money they were sold off in the civilian market this is in 1918 not this one these were all utilized you know these sings access numbers issue to pilots on the Mexican border this was also essentially like pretty much like the first pilot survival ration like a real effective for at least not a hundred percent official but certainly one of the first if not the first effective self-contained long-term storage compressed food type survival ration used by pilots that's the sing story not bad that about does it I mean this is pretty good you know this is like actually you know that that tastes like food you'd get out of circus carnies that make like a strange meal and you can smell that old grease and it's like a questionable beef he's not too bad so this is essentially the great grandfather of American survival rations US Army emergency ration from December 1906 packed by the American compressed Food Company I pass a new jersey but I feel like that company did a great job making the sing endured for a very long time its vacuum seal was still good that lacquered can with yellow paint that has double coating on the seams it just was a well-protected rash and that was built to last indefinitely to last forever what a food discovery what an experience this is Steve 1989 I hope you liked the video and I'll be coming back at you with something new hurled all right cool see you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 3,271,926

Rating: 4.8758602 out of 5

Keywords: mre, ration, army, food, military, meal, ready, to, eat, pack, survival, camping, emergency, ASMR, steve1989, mreinfo, steve, mci, korea, vietnam, gulf, modern, civilian, packaged, packet, oldest, eaten, tasting, crazy, rarest, coolest, amazing, SHTF, review, MRE, Steve, Taste, Test, Steve1989 MRE Taste Test, MRE Steve, Meal Ready to Eat, American Expeditionary Forces MRE, AEF Ration, US Army Emergency Ration, Preserved 24 Hour Ration Review

Id: 562nQKR3_3M

Length: 94min 59sec (5699 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Jellcat]

Let's get that on a tray...

[u/mojomonkeyfish]

Is Steve just going to keep eating older and older rations till he finds one that kills him?

Steve 2030: This is a Sumarian charioteer ration, clearly marked on the amphora as being made in the city of Ur... or Uruk, my cuneiform is kinda rusty. Now, the charioteers generally got better rations because they were higher status, and also because Gilgamesh didn't want them eating their horses. Just look at this amphora - high quality stoneware, hand etched. The rope bindings and wax seals are still intact, that's just amazing. I had to trade an ISIS black market artifacts dealer a full pallet of 7.62 ammo for this. Let's get that on a tray... *retches uncontrollably for five minutes* Nice. It's really not that bad. Really well preserved. You can see there are still intact pieces of goat stomach that would have been wrapping the offal and barley cake. I mean, wow, I'm just going to try...

[u/TeletraanConvoy]

I fell deep in the rabbit hole watching his videos

[u/NuclearPanda47]

Finds piece of history over 100 years old

*eats it*

[u/scotty_the_newt]

His last name is Thomas not 1989? Colour me surprised.

[u/Last_man_sitting]

Man's gotta have a stomach of adamantium after all those ancient rations he's eaten

[u/Gryphons13th]

In the interest of the lazy, what happens? It was gross, right?

[u/1n1billionAZNsay]

This is a great channel to binge watch.

[u/storko]

Glad to see he's still alive