British MRE

We have managed to get in good with some of the British supply sergeants both at Shiaba and COP Basrah and they have provided us with some cases of their MRE equivalent rations. There are two types a 24 hour ration that, as you guessed it, is designed to provide a soldier with his meals for a 24 hour period, breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as what they call a hot weather supplement. The above picture is a box of 24 hour rations. Notice the zeroing target on the side of the box, we don't do that with our MREs our boxes just have a postcard on the side. I'm not sure who has the better idea.

This box included sausage and beans (beanie weenies), brown biscuits (hard crackers), fruit biscuits (crackers with fruit bits baked in them) chicken and mushroom soup base, chicken and mushroom paste (you combine the soup base and the paste to make a more filling soup), pork casserole (more like a stew than a casserole) and syrup pudding ( a block of breading of some sort soaked in maple syrup). Also included are the standard sundry items much like the MRE, matches, toilet paper, white tea (it’s not actually white), hot chocolate flavored drink mix, fruit flavored drink mix, fruit flavored hard candy, a Nestle chocolate bar they call a “Yorkie” (it’s always melted and ends up getting thrown away) and a sport drink much like Gatorade. Being a “Silly Yank” I have no idea what is supposed to be for breakfast, lunch or dinner, but I like to eat the soup and paste mix together with a couple of brown biscuits soaked in them and then the pork casserole with the syrup pudding. This meal tastes pretty good but I’m a not sure if I like the syrup pudding, just a little too sweet for me after a while. Other main entrees/meals include steak and vegetables, beef stew and dumplings, chicken mushrooms and pasta, corned beef hash, lamb and potatoes, vegetable tikka masala, rice pudding, fruit dumplings and tomato beef broth with chili beef paste. The only other one of those that I have had are the steak and vegetables, tomato beef broth with chili beef paste and the fruit dumplings. They were all pretty good except for the fruit dumplings which I didn’t warm up, I think that they might be better nuked.
This is what the pork casserole, syrup pudding, and chicken mushroom soup with chicken mushroom paste looks like heated up and ready to eat. Notice the field expedient soup bowl, a water bottle cut in half with the top half stuffed into the bottom, makes a pretty good insulator for soup or coffee. I had to heat this in the microwave since it doesn’t come with a water activated heater like an MRE does. I don’t know if the Brits issue a heater separately or if their tracked vehicles have a hot water heater that allows them to warm up the meals, some of our tracked vehicles have a heater like this for MREs .

This is the hot weather supplement. Supposedly it is supposed to last longer in the desert, most of the stuff doesn't melt and takes little preparation. The package contains three flavored citrus drink packets; a savory snack, in this case Mini Cheddar Biscuits (much like Cheez-Its); an energy bar ,kind of like a peanut candy bar; a meal pouch, pasta with mushrooms in tomato sauce; a sweet snack that the Brits call a flapjack but is more like an oatmeal bar with a sugary taste; and a fruit snack pouch, which is a cherry applesauce in a squeeze tube.
After eating on the British rations for a few days I’ve come to the conclusion that even though I like them better than the MREs that is probably because they are new to me. I bet the British soldiers feel the same way about their rations that American soldiers do “Man, not the pasta and mushrooms in tomato sauce, again!”