MRE Monday (Week 1) - Menu 7: Brisket Entree (Genuine, 2015)

Hey Everyone!

My first MRE! Genuine MRE manufactured by The Wornick Company.

Here it is! The first review. I'll start off by saying that I wasn't totally sure what to expect from actually opening and eating this MRE. What if it's fake? What if I hate how it tastes? What if a meteorite crashed through my ceiling and destroyed this meal before I even got to taste it!? But I took my chances and jumped right in.

Let's start with the date:

I couldn't find a date code stamp on the outside of the MRE bag, so I turned to the contents for info. Based on the cappuccino and the entree, this MRE was produced in early/mid 2015, so it's a pretty recent one.

The Components:

What's Included:

• White Wheat Snack Bread
• Peanut Butter
• Blackberry Jam
• Brisket Entree ("Gravy with Seasoned Beef Brisket")
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Irish Cream Cappuccino, Instant Powder
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookie
• Accessory Packet B (Lemonade Base Powder, Butter Granules*, Iodized Salt, Moist Towelette, Toilet Paper, and Mint Gum)
• Spoon
• Flameless Ration Heater

*My MRE didn't come with Butter Granules. A bit of a bummer, but I didn't miss it much.

Flameless Ration Heater:

FRH with the famous "Rock or Something"

I'm only going to talk about this in the first review because it'll get repetitive if I bring it up every review. It's a standard FRH that only needs water to start the chemical reaction that heats the entree and side dish in the bag. It really works in heating the food and, as my first time ever trying an FRH, I think it's really cool.

I used a bottle of vitamins as my "rock or something".

White Wheat Snack Bread and Spreads:

The wheat snack bread was soft and tasted like standard wheat bread and was enjoyable. The peanut butter was just normal peanut butter; it was thick, sticky, and had that familiar and pleasant sweet and salty taste. The blackberry jam was very different to me. I've never eaten a blackberry so I didn't know if I would even like the jam, but it was a nice balance of sweet and tangy and so I enjoyed it. You can even tell that there are seeds in the jam and that made it feel real and rustic.

Lemonade Base Powder:

This was a sugar free drink and, boy, does it taste like it. Even tough I mixed the powder with less water than recommended, the drink had very little sweetness. It was very lemony and it had a fairly bitter aftertaste, so not the best drink I've ever had.

Brisket Entree:

The main event! The brisket slices were tender and tasted a lot like the chunks of meat you would get from a can of beef stew. A comforting flavor for me. There was definitely more gravy than meat and it was quite overpowering. That gravy was savory and had a lot potential but was just way too salty for my taste. I know it's to help preserve the food for a long period of time, but GEEZ! I won't lie, though; this entree smelled a lot like dog food when I first opened it, but that didn't stop me and, for the most part, I enjoyed the dish.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

The potatoes had a nice texture (better than I expected) and was very creamy. But, this side had way too much garlic flavor and that's coming from someone who LOVES garlic. Maybe, if I had the butter granules, that would have improved the taste, but, for now, it's just another part of the meal that didn't exactly hit the mark.

Irish Cream Cappuccino:

Had a mild sweetness and coffee flavor that was quite pleasant. Perhaps I accidentally added too much water to the powder because the flavors were almost too mild, but it was still a lovely hot drink for this meal.

 Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookie:

This was definitely the winner of the MRE. It was crunchy, sweet, and chocolately without being overpowering in anyway. A great end to the meal. It was a good cookie. What more can I say?

Overall Rating: 6/10

I'm giving this meal a 6/10 because it has a lot of potential as a meal, but the main entry and side dish have too much salt and garlic for me to give it a higher rating. The cookie and cappuccino are the saving grace of this meal.

There it is! My first MRE review. I think this meal was a good introduction to the MRE world and I think I picked a good time to start (It's my birthday week!). I look forward to my next MRE adventure next week.

Thanks for Reading,

Maggie