(playful upbeat music) - Greetings, my beautiful lovelies. It's Emmy. How are you, it's great to see you, and welcome back to
another ration taste test. Today I'm going to be
tasting a Meal Ready-To-Eat, which is a food ration given to soldiers, that contains everything
you would need for a meal. It is shelf stable and is
made to last for several years and this is what it looks like. So I have eaten many of these and I've also tasted
international ones as well. I will point you to the
military ration taste test playlist down below in
case you're interested in seeing more. Today's ration taste test is going to be a little bit different
because I am recovering my sense of smell and taste, (chuckles) because I had COVID
over the holiday break. I am pretty much fully recovered. I feel great, except I
can't really taste or smell. Now, I have noticed some improvements. I can smell some things if I put my nose really, really, really close to it. But even really strong
things like coffee, vinegar, fish sauce, those things
that have very strong odors to them, smells,
fragrances, I struggle with and that has affected my sense of taste. I can taste sour, salty, sweet, bitter. I can taste those things,
but nothing has any flavor. It's a very odd thing. Some people have shared
their post-COVID experiences with losing their sense of taste and smell and say they have a phantom smell. They always smell something burning or something foul
smelling, burnt cigarettes. I thankfully don't have that. I just don't really
smell much of anything. I just really wanna sniff my kids' heads. I just love the smell of them so much and I think that's the smell I miss most. At any rate, I'm gonna
be tasting this ration. This is an MRE, Meal 20. Hash brown potatoes with
bacon, pepper, and onions. Sounds delicious. I'm a huge fan of hash browns. In fact, it's my favorite thing to have when I have a diner-y breakfast and we'll see what this tastes like now that I can't taste anything. I don't know. I don't really know what to expect. So let's go ahead and get started. Here it is, Meal 20. I've never tasted this ration before. And this is the peelable seal. Now the seal's very, very
tight because (chuckles) it's a way to keep it
fresh and keep moisture out of the ration. Oh my gosh, it's so hard. Okay. Got it open. And let's see what is inside. Okay, so within this bag, there's another bag that's shrink wrapped. Let's see what's inside this ration. So this contains a
flameless ration heater, a hot beverage bag. This is plastic that can
withstand hot, high temperatures. Beverage Base, Orange Type III. A spoon. And this one's wrapped in plastic. The ones that I remember before
were not wrapped in plastic. Okay. Crackers, cheese spread. Ooh, look at this. These are cashews, jalapeño flavor. And this is Mountain House granola. I have not had this before. Then we have a Bridgeford
Filled French toast. Ooh, a little sundries bag. And this is, this looks like
a little cardboard sleeve for the main entree, which
is the hash browns potatoes with bacon peppers, and onions. Think that helps keep things toasty. Not sure. And here's the meal itself. Very flat and dense. (chuckles) I guess we put this in here? I'm not really sure what this is for. It doesn't say. Alrighty, so that's it. This is everything that's
contained inside of Menu 20. Let's see what's inside
of the sundries pack. So in here, we have some toilet paper. Let me show you what that looks like. Is it connected? I don't know if I've
ever opened this before. Oh, it isn't. They're like, they're
little loose squares. Got two pieces of gum. Moist towelette. Matches that are designed
for damp environments. Let's see if they look any different. They don't look that different. Let's just light one out of curiosity. Yep. They work. Let's see if I can smell it. Yes, I can smell just a
little bit of a burning smell. This is a great sign. I actually love the smell of matches. What else do we have in here? Nondairy creamer; instant coffee, sugar, and salt. So the first thing I'm going
to do is clean my hands with the moist towelette. Let's see if I can smell it. Nope. Don't smell a thing. But this is what the towelette looks like. My favorite towelettes are
the lemon-scented ones. They remind me of going to KFC with my mom when I was just a little tot. Okay, we're clean. Now, let's go ahead and
get the ration heated up in the ration heater. So I've received a lot
of comments from soldiers past and present that have
used or eaten lots of MREs and said many times MREs
are not even heated. So I'm gonna heat them, because I really enjoy
using the ration heater. Ah, this is great! It tells, it explains what this is for. So this goes on top of this -- that's right -- to keep the meal warm. Okay, so you put the sleeve on top, okay, as a way to insulate the heat. That's what this is. This is a little cardboard insulator. I love that this diagram
continues to be used on flameless ration
heaters simply for this. This... rock or something. (laughs) And that's actually pretty important, because the water reacts
with the chemicals in here to create the heat. And that's why this is sealed. But we don't want the water escaping, getting all over the place, right? I think the design of this
is a little bit different. I don't remember it
being waffled like that. I wonder if it'll be more
effective as a heater. I hope so. Sort of hit or miss, my past experiences with these ration heaters in
terms of how effective they are in actually heating up the meal. There is a fill line right there. We're gonna add just a
few tablespoons really to get the water to that line. I'm gonna put the ration in
first, but not all the way in. And I'm very curious to see
if I can smell the chemical. This meal does not fit
very well in the heater. That's annoying, okay. You think they would have
measured the parameters. Okay, I'm trying to fold it so it fits and I'm not having much success. Go into the, (sighs) okay. Now we're gonna add the
water, and it's not much. Do not overfill. Okay, we've got the water in there. Now we slide the ration all the way down. Fold this over. And now we're gonna slide
that over this top of this. I don't hear an, usually you
start to hear some hissing. I don't hear anything and I
don't feel anything either. Well, we're gonna let that sit
and see if anything happens. It usually kind of expands
and there's a reaction. I don't know. I hope that's not faulty. Okay. I'm just gonna let it do its thing, if it does the thing, okay? With that, let's go ahead
and make our granola with milk and blueberries. Can you see inside there? See some big blueberries. It says to add a quarter,
a sixth of a canteen cup, add two to four ounces of water. All right. It's about a third of a cup. Just gonna add that to here. And it says stir and consume promptly. Oh, wow. I thought it would have
to soak, but I guess not. All right. Dude, my ration heater's a dud. Or maybe, I don't know. Oh, crap. I put my granola down and now it's bled purple water everywhere. Oh, look at that. That's the guts of my granola. Oh, well. Let's try cleaning that up. This faulty ration heater's
just thrown me for a loop. I'm gonna pour this into a bowl so you can see what I'm eating. Oh, no. (Emmy laughs) I forgot to take that out. Oh, man, this is a disaster. Okay. You're supposed to
not leave that in there. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I think this ration
heater is definitely a dud. It is getting a little bit warm, but usually there's a
puffing and a sizzling and stuff coming out of it. Okay. This is the granola,
on the other hand. This doesn't look half bad. Look at that beautiful purple
color and lots of berries. Let's see if I can taste this. Doesn't smell like anything. Nope. All right, here we go. Itadakimasu. Hmm. The blueberries are freeze-dried. So they've got kind of
an airy quality to them. I think the longer that
this sits in the water, the more kind of hydrated they get. But at the moment, they're pretty airy and they don't have much
taste because they just don't. There's a little bit of sweetness. Mhmm. But that's about it. The texture is a little bit gritty, sandy. The oat pieces are not that big, so it's not like I have
to really work through a lot of grain. I am impressed with the
amount of fruit in here. A lot of fruit. I would say more fruit than grains. It's cold though. I think my associations
with something like this is more like an oatmeal. I know it says granola,
but I want it to be warm. Maybe I would taste it more? Maybe that's just my own bias. But right now it has
dry milk powder in it. And combined with that cold water, it has this kind of fatty,
separated fatty texture. It's kind of odd. Perhaps if the water had
been that room temperature, I'd be less aware of
that kind of clumpy fatty texture to it. But I am kind of hyper
aware of texture right now because I can't really taste. So this is fine, but it
probably tastes a lot better if you can taste something. All right. I think if this ration heater
was really gonna do its thing, it would've been doing it by now. I think this ration heater
is definitely a dud. I'm guessing that there was
a hole in the bag itself. It is getting a little bit warm, but it should get a lot warmer than this. It should be expanding
and fizzing, and it's not, but it is getting warm, but I shouldn't be able to just
stick my hand right into it, so I'm just gonna let it continue while I taste the other things. So hopefully it'll get
just a little bit warm. Let's check out the
crackers, the cheese spread and the cashews. - Very large cracker. Ooh, I've heard a little hiss. That's great. And it looks like there's
multiple crackers in there. Looks like a giant saltine. Yeah. Look at all those uniform dots. It's great. I like all the perforations. So it looks like you can break this. I like the fact that this isn't
broken, but you can snap it. I really wish it would've
broken cleanly, but it didn't. Let's just try it plain and
see if I taste anything. Hmm, nope. Not even really salty. Maybe it's just a tiny bit of saltiness. Pretty light on the salt. Let's try the cheese spread. I love that it specifically says to knead the package before opening. Make sure that the oils get
remixed into the cheese spread. In the past, I found the
jalapeno flavor to be the most pleasant between
the regular and this one. Whoa. So I inadvertently sliced
the whole thing open, along the whole side here. I meant to just do a
little bit, but, all right. Let's put some of that
cheese spread on here and see if I can taste any of that. Cheese spread. All right, let's give that a taste. Itadakimasu. Definitely, definitely salty. Very salty. It's a little bit of tanginess. Not really any cheese
flavor I'm detecting. Mhmm, hmm. Maybe just a little bit of cheesy funk? Maybe? But the salt is welcome for sure. These crackers are very plain. And in terms of texture,
these crackers are similar to those crackers in those little boxes. The little snack crackers
that I'm talking about. They're a little bit shorter
than saltine crackers. Seems like there's maybe a
little bit of oil in them so the crumb, it's a
little bit more crumbly, rather than just being
a snap of a saltine. Mhmm. Let's wash that down with
some beverage based powder. Orange, type three. Got a glass here. Nope. Can't really smell anything. Maybe I'll smell it in its drink form. Okay, good. It's orange color. Yes, as it should be like orange Tang. And give that a stir. All right, let's see if I can taste this. I think I faintly smell orange. Like orange Kool-Aid or Tang. Yeah. Very faint. All right, that's a good sign, though. About a week ago, I wouldn't
have smelled anything. Alrighty, let's see if I can taste it. Here we go, cheers. That was very concentrated. I tasted very intense
sweetness, tanginess. I can smell very faint orange. I can't really taste the orange. I can taste that sweetness
and artificial sweetener kind of aftertaste as well. Kind of chemical, doesn't taste very good, 'cause I can't taste any
of that artificial orange, which I actually kind of like, that really great orange Tang flavor. Not tasting it, but I
can faintly smell it. Good sign. My ration is still just barely warm. Okay, let's try the cashews. Now, throughout all of this, I have still been able
to detect spice and heat. So if I eat something spicy,
I can still feel the spice. I can't taste the peppery flavor, though. But definitely have a spicy reaction. I guess you could call it slight
pain, a little bit of pain. (bowl clinks) Oh my gosh. And these are jalapeno flavored cashews. See if I can smell 'em. Oh, maybe very faintly. Yep. Very very faintly. There are the seasoned cashews. Love cashews. All right. Let's see if I can taste this. I think I can! Just a little bit. So great! Definitely taste the salt. Don't taste the nutty
flavor of the cashew. But, I really love the
buttery richness of cashews. Mm. A faint taste of jalapeno. Very faint. Little bit of heat. Just a little bit of a
sparkle on your tongue. And definitely taste the salt. All right. I'm gonna give my ration as
much time as I can to warm up, so let's go ahead and skip to dessert. Let's try this. This is the filled french
toast, which I have never had. I've had plenty of the
Bridgeford brand sweets before. Kind of like the cinnamon bun one is probably the one I've had the most, but don't remember ever
having the french toast. Ooh. Some ooze coming out. Oh yeah. I can smell something. I can smell artificial maple syrup smell. Okay. So this looks very similar
to the cinnamon bun. Not all that attractive
if you wanna be honest. And let me cut it in half
to see what it looks like in the middle. And that's what it looks like inside. So that's the filled french toast. Let's make some hot
coffee while we're at it. So this is a heat safe bag. So add this to here. And we'll add six ounces of water. And that's it. Hot beverage in a bag, which is very difficult to drink out of. So I'm gonna put it in a mug. So yes, what is the logic of this? How do you consume this? Do you have a straw? I mean, how. You can't even hold it without
burning yourself, really. I'm just gonna pour it into. - [Voice] Bruh. - Oh, lovely. (harp music) Just one of those days. Oh my. Let's have some coffee. Cheers. Ooh, that's bitter. I'm gonna add some more water to this. I think it needs more. I can smell it if I put my nose up to it. Smells burnt mostly. When I taste it, I do taste
a kind of burnt flavor. That does taste that coffee. Let's see if I can taste the french toast. Here we go. Not really. I think there's a little
bit of nuts in here. There's some kind of texture
in here that's not bread-like. Mhmm. Maybe. I didn't taste it
on that bite or feel it. The texture of these Bridgewater products are not my favorite. They tend to be
simultaneously dense and dry, but slightly moist. It's a strange combination. It's the technology they use
to make them shelf stable. So it's somewhat bread-like,
but just very dense, yet dry. It is sweet. And I can smell the maple syrup in it. I can't really smell anything
else besides that, though. And for me, it's sweet. But even when I can taste, I'm not a huge fan of these
desserts, but with coffee, at the end of a meal,
it's better than nothing. Maybe. (chuckles) Alrighty, let's try
our hash brown potatoes with bacon, peppers and onions. This sadly did not react very well. It is just barely warm. I'm pretty sure the rations gonna be cold. And this is not the typical reaction. And I can't smell any of the chemicals. I guess we're gonna eat it field-style, which is pretty much cold. It's probably, it's like room temperature. It's not entirely cold. All right, let's squeeze this out. Well, I have to say this is
not the most appetizing ration I've ever seen. Yeah, I do see bits of potato in there. And bacon. I can smell bacon I think. Yeah, smokey. Mhmm. Alright, that's a great sign. Alright, here we go. Hmm, boy.... that texture's terrible cold -- cold potatoes don't have
a very good texture: it's wet and crumbly and mealy. You know when you have like
a mealy apple, like that. This...these hash browns are shredded, so you have these little shredded pieces of mealy cold potato. I can taste the salt. Hmm. And a little bit of smokiness,
but terrible texture. I'm gonna try eating
these up in the microwave and see if that does anything. I imagine definitely I'll be able to smell the aromas better. But more importantly,
I think that heating it will change the starches in the potatoes so that it has a better texture. Let's see. Okay, we have microwaved our hash browns. Now I can smell the bacon and
it smells like bacon bits. It's the bacon-y smoked aroma rather than like freshly cooked bacon. Know what I mean? Bacon bits or Bac-Os. This is what it looks like -- I would say a little more appealing, although still not that great. But you can see the potato pieces better. And let's see if I can
taste it any better. Can't really see the
peppers and onions too much. Mostly it's a little chopped
up bacon bits and potato. Let's see if the texture has improved. My apologies for the snafu
on the audio as well -- my battery pack died. So yeah. Let's give this a taste. Itadakimasu. Mm, mhmm. Texture's way better. The starches have gelatinized. Is that even a word? Gelled. The starches have
gelled, so it's no longer mealy. It's more of a gelled texture. The potato is more like
a cooked stewed potato, rather than being this
crumbly, strange, cold thing. In terms of flavor, I can definitely taste
it a little bit more. More of that smokey bacon flavor, but I can't taste the pepper or the onion. No. Definitely an improvement
on the texture, though. And it's more soupy now. It's salty, though. Very salty. But that could just be my
whacked taste buds as well. Not delicious. So there you have it my lovelies, I tried Menu 20 Hash Brown Potatoes with Bacon, Peppers and Onion MRE. And I could taste some things. And I'm so grateful for that
because about a week ago, I had nothing, no smell,
no taste, no nothing. No, that's not true. I could taste just very basic things, but now I'm beginning
to get some flavor back, which I so appreciate
because that's so much about what eating food for me is about: the complexities of all those
tastes combined with textures. But it does have me analyzing
textures a lot more. Alrighty, my lovelies. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed that one. I hope you learned something. Please share this video with your friends. Follow me on social media,
like this video, subscribe. And I shall see you in the next one. Toodaloo, take care. Bye! (orchestral outro music) Alrighty, so do you think
my chickens will like this?
