Old Army Ration pack?

[reb0118]

I've got old ration packs in my garage from my TA days in the 90's. Now there is no use by date on them but there is a packed on date of 1994.

I've just boiled in the bag some beans & sausages. Do you think they are still safe to eat? Looks ok but a slight metalic smell and tastes a wee bit earthy but nothing a bit of brown sauce won't sort out. Should I take the chance? Don't worry I not hold you responsible - I'll just be dead!

 

[Hydro]

They ought to be fine, everythings airtight. The processed cheese may look a bit luminous, and the biscuits, brown a bit tough, but that's an original feature!

 

[mbonwick]

They should be fine.

Be warned though, the main purpose of biscuits brown is to block you up...!

 

[Wyvern]

What about the bromide? Or was that just in the tea?

(forces-style urban myth)

 

[Hydro]

What about the bromide? Or was that just in the tea?

(forces-style urban myth)

Everyone used to say that they could taste it. It wasn't bromide, it was just awful tea that had been sitting in the Norwegian since 4am with half an inch of tea leaves swilling around the bottom*. The idea of bromide in the tea has been going strong since World War 2, and was still floating around when I was in 5 years ago.


*It was still nectar after a hard exercise though. Especially at Christmas, the Officers used to dish out "gunfire", tea laced very liberally with rum. I remember the last exercise before Christmas, we'd just finished the debrief after a freezing night recce where we froze to the ground, and put in an attack on a couple of machine gun positions. Everyone went back down the hill to find the 4 tonners waiting with Norwegians full of tea and the platoon commanders emptying rum into them. It was utter bliss.

 

[mbonwick]

What about the bromide? Or was that just in the tea?

(forces-style urban myth)

Alas, the last rat pack I had contained no tea in it, but instead some rather wonderfully sweet hot chocolate!

 

[Flamingo]

As an old SSGT (catering corps for the use of) once put it when he was asked which Norwegian was tea and which was coffee "If it tastes of diesel it's coffee, if it tastes of petrol it's tea".

Hot and wet - all that you were expected to look for.

I wouldn't worry about the rat packs, they are designed to last until the next major war. There are stories about casks of beef from the Napoleonic and Crimean War being issued during WW1.

 

[Hydro]

As an old SSGT (catering corps for the use of).

How does the old joke go? The Catering Corps ran the hardest course in the British Army, no-one ever passed it.

 

[Flamingo]

Our lot didn't like tinned food - they found it easier to render fresh food inedible!

 

[pooliemag]

I remember back in 84 opening a ration pack to find a mars bars that went out of date in 1973......and after a yomp over Dartmoor it was and still is the best mars bar i have ever eaten

 

[Ploughman]

The old initials for the Army Catering Corps of ACC often translated to Army Cant Cook or Andy Capps Commandos.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The old initials for the Army Catering Corps of ACC often translated to Army Cant Cook or Andy Capps Commandos.

I was wondering when something like this would surface on this thread...I notice that you only used the ones that are fit to print