Considering he puts out like one video every six months, I hope he’s still got a day job. I kind of hate these ones. Once you’ve seen a couple of the WW2 ration videos, you’ve seen them all. It’s not nearly as interesting for me when it’s all just inedible dust and rocks instead of an actual meal he’s trying and discussing. Oh well.
Steve has graced us with not one, not two, not three, but four new MRE videos in as many days. He can often go months between single videos, but we have a cornucopia of retort-packaged food! God bless this man’s intestines.
That IDF MRE is not that different than what I had back nearly 20 years ago, the added humus makes for some positive progress, but the rest is pretty much identical.
Everybody is still quite disappointed there is no more spam in the MREs. Only found an MRE with spam once in my service. Brought it home for my dad, he loves that stuff.
I really hate spam myself. Give me a pork patty any day over spam.
I think its the congealed fat on spam that I can’t deal with
One thing I never understood is why spam is so expensive. I mean, it’s the mashed up part of pigs that would normally be thrown away, so why isn’t it dirt cheap?
That may have been true when it was invented, but nobody throws away perfectly good food-grade animal bits these days. Gotta make nuggets and hot dogs out of something!
Spam isn’t made from garbage parts, it’s made from pork shoulder.
Spam is pork shoulder. For a long time pork shoulder was a difficult cut to work with and did not sell well. Spam was developed in part to figure out how to use all the unsold pork shoulder that processors ended up with after butchering thousands/millions of pigs.
At the same time, the Army needed a canned meat product that could be eaten without preparation.
There’s a reason you can’t go to many Pacific nations and not find Spam on the menu. The army basically exported it to combat theaters and it became popular with the inhabitants there.
I love spam. There are two main ways to use it, I think.
-
lean into its soft texture. Spam is very smooth, almost like firm tofu. This can go very well into dishes that benefit from that kind of silky texture.
-
fry it, which causes it to take on a tougher, crisper texture when browning. In this form, it’s very much like other breakfast meats such as porkroll. It’s ability to brown is very good, I think due to the potato starch that’s used in it as a binding agent.
Pork shoulder is still super cheap compared to most other cuts of meat. Not canned meat cheap, but really a bargain if you can take the time to slow cook it.
Not unlike … bologna. The same rules apply, you have to chase the texture you want to eat it as.
I prefer fried spam, either sliced and fried to be put on a sandwich or in a stir fry. I haven’t had any in years though. My father was a sucker for any cheap meat or fish product at the grocery store and as a kid you don’t know any better so you eat with your parents. I’m glad for that because it doesn’t make me as squeamish about trying things, especially when traveling.
I like to make spam fried rice. It’s been a while, gotta check cupboard for a can.
Spam sliced thin, fried till crispy, serve with just about anything like bacon.
There are few greater joys in life than being on a cold guard post and your platoon sergeant showing up with a hot fried Spam sandwich for you. All the troubles in the world just fade away.
Just the description of that made be long for it. I can imagine that being a pretty awesome day and also a pretty awesome boss for doing that.
Steve last posted a video on April 20, 2022.
Until last night!
When you stop eating half-fossilized MREs for a year, you get jacked apparently. Who knew?
Some of the new methods for long-term shelf storage is interesting. Vacuum microwave dried food that retains some moisture, compressed using sonic agglomeration. And more of a care towards good energy and nutrition.
— Alan
I kind of wonder what methods are used for the one-week or one-month survival packs you can buy for your home for emergencies. Are those just low priced crappy freeze dried items?
Shit like this …
https://www.amazon.com/ReadyWise-Emergency-Freeze-Dried-Gluten-Free-Emergencies/dp/B00TX5J74S
I basically have that. But I go for Mountain Home. Shelf-life of 25 years. Enough to keep me fed for a week in case the big one hits Seattle. It’s not gourmet, but it’ll basically be if the gas/electricity/water are out for a lengthy period of time.
I keep lots of bottled water. And I can use my camping stove to boil it so I can have hot food.
And I do have a case of MREs, too.