A rather tasty emergency/military ration pack from Poland.
I think this ration pack was sent by Michal a long time ago. (It's on his dedicated part of a shelf of stuff). I didn't make a video about it earlier as I had made a few videos about other MREs (Meal Ready to Eat) at the time.
One of the more unusual items in this one was a one-litre water treatment system with a rugged hangable ziploc style bag and a tiny chlorination tablet. Further investigation shows that the little water treatment tablets are very common and some contain silver for additional antibacterial effect.
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It's been a long night of technology, so i think i'll have a snack now and uh. I think this was sent by mikhail amongst some other stuff and it's a polish mre meal ready to eat military ration style of thing. Now i don't read polish, but i'll. Try and read the text and what it might sound like, but i'll tell you what it is: fasola por britons go: 300 grams, that's 300 grams, baked beans conserve a hundred grams; that's uh canned meat, sukure, special 90 grams; special risks, uh shigalada, dopisia or pikia; 25 Grams, that's drinking chocolate and uh.

The final item is - and this is quite hard to read - baton - bazaar, a walk away that basically means fruit and cereal bar. So let's open this up, that was terrible. Pronunciation was to yes, it was. I think this has also got a burner in it as opposed to the chemical guitar.

Let's see if anything's puffed up these things are always a treat just because there are so many interesting things, i'm going to guess that this is probably the cereal bar. It says pums uh apple, so i think this is the fruit and seal bar. This feels like that. It's the sugar lada, the pika, that's a the drinking chocolate.

It's got some extra candy in it, that's nice! What's this a concentrate na poggio, herbacionego incent, i'm not sure that is, this might be a set of vegetable stuff. This is quite a nice container. Oh. What is that? What is this hold on? So this is probably - and it's not swollen ups.

This is good. This is the uh, probably the beans, and this will be the tub of hermetically sealed meat, which is also not swollen up. That's nice. Do these have individual dates on them, not that really bothered i'm going to eat it anyway.

24. 20. 20. That's not bad! That's only a year out of date, this one is a five five that they're fine they're, absolutely fine.

What's the worst can happen here. Are the despicable, uh extra hard cracker things? They always have a bag. This might be a drink bag. Oh one liter! It is a drink bag.

Okay, and this will be the burner - the little fuel stove, which contains uh fuel tablets that you're not really supposed to light indoors and the little fuel burner that will be put on. Oh as you you fold it like this, and in doing so it creates the little stove, but it also lifts itself off the ground so that you can get a thermal isolation and some airflow in there. Okay have respect than brahmin. Do not leave litter.

That's reasonable enough. That's good wise words! I'm intrigued. I know what this is. I know what this is.

This is a handle for your little bean pot, because the bean pot is effectively your cooking pan. That's quite nice, so i'd guess that this probably goes around like this and then it hooks on like uh. Let's say i get this right like that. That is your uh, your saucepan excellent! I tell you what let's get these open? It is baked beans that exciting.

It's more than big beans that is much more than baked beans. There's fatty meaty stuff. In there, oh there they are been telling little porky. Is there something else in there? That's interesting? And what about this? Then there is the canned meat.
It's looking fine! It's looking like canned meat. It's like looking like spam right. Tell you what one more piece while i just prepare these in my bachelor bowl, the food preparation has been done. Other things have been discovered.

In fact, you know before i taste this. I've discovered that this plastic bag is a water sterilization bag and matching it in the bag. With this of candy, which uh the boiled sweets here have done, what they usually do, they've actually gone soft and they've absorbed, moisture and they've gone syrupy inside there. So it's got made everything sticky and instantly the uh the drink, that i'll show you that afterwards, this of sweet drink is based in these little sort of granules of glucose.

I think uh with forest fruits flavoring, but amongst that was this little tiny tablet. So i should take it out, try to find it online very much a polish thing apparently and uh. Let me just try and get this out but sold in other countries as well. Eh, oh, it does smell like chlorine.

I think right tell you what i'm gon na pop this in here and then i'm going to add the required amount of water. So in goes this tiny little tablet here and then i'll sniff it afterwards i'll even taste it just to see if it actually is very chlorinate, because you wait till that tiny little tablet in there has dissolved and that should it be sterile uh one moment please It is filled the little tablet down here is effervescing. It's it's sparkling, so uh. Let's leave that to the side.

It's designed to be hung on a branch or something with these holes, but i shall put it down because it kind of when you place it down. It holds it forms a little dimple at the bottom that actually holds that tablet sort of dead center. When you drop it in it's quite neat, it's quite well designed it appears to be used for disaster relief as well. So i used my bachelor bowl for this instead of this little handy thing, but i shall keep this aside to go with that, just because it's quite neat, where is the cutlery? Oh, i also discovered two packs of sugar and what i think is coffee um.

What else three uh lemon wipes? I'm not sure if you should use them your anus or not, but uh the and a plastic bag for putting your stuff in afterwards, i'm gon na use oh and a ward of toilet paper. I've just noticed. I've got a napkin here, so this must be toilet paper. The lemon must be to leave your bottom feeling lemon fresh afterwards.

The baked beans have discs of sausage in amongst them and they are big beans. Let's give this a taste. This is very reminiscent of particularly to meet the russian mre. I suppose really a good stew is the staple of a classic mre tastes, pretty good nice.
That would be very enjoyable. I will eat that completely. Let's take a look at some other things. We've got the the drinking chocolate now, the drinking chocolate is not very sweet and it's very thick and very dark hold on.

Let me just taste it and it's slightly fragrant the fruity drink. I dissolved in this much water, probably about a couple of hundred milliliters and it's uh has the classic. Let me just taste this maybe use less water, it seems like it might be quite need to quite concentrate, but get this the feeling. This is sort of energy and sugar and fruitiness.

So let's get the crackers out and a knife, a plastic knife and try the crackers on their own and then i'll spread some of the meats based on them. The meat taste is such a classic european european european. A thing it just everything about it, says poland in russia, it's just like it's that style, they're super rock hard, as they usually are the meat paste. I guess it's supposed to be spread on your crackers.

This is what i'm going to eject onto my bench. I shall put a bit on and i shall squish it that i shall squish it to the point that the knife snaps or the meat flies out at an angle. It's a very, very robust meat paste right now. I shall give this a taste.

I should give a bit of meat a taste first on its own. It tastes pretty much like lunch meat spam. Your crackers are indestructible: now the classic military mre cracker really hard. I think that's what they mean by special super hard, but still very palatable did i mention there was a box of matches to like the uh.

Stove plenty matches looks like a match. Much as you'd expect. It's a match. Nice smell very pyro.

What about the muesli bar? Instead, you got a salt and pepper. You got that bag of the uh, these fruity sugar bits for dissolving as the drink where's the packet for that there it is they're very hard to read it with the translator, because it's black when the silver background it struggled to actually see that. But you get salt and pepper, get your chewing gum strip, possibly for clean the teeth and then like three bits of candy plus you actually get a toothbrush in this kit. Very interesting honestly, it's like a it's like a lucky bag for adults.

What is this going to be like? Well? For a start, the muesli bar is pressed in between it's extruded between oh, it smells oily uh. It's extruded between two bits of uh rice paper actually tested. It's very like a children's confection in the sense that you know you get those fruit strips, but it's all been it's very much just a syrupy paste in there that's quite hard and soaked into this of the fibrous components and then that's why they've had to put That coating on either side to actually be able to compress it flat in a controlled manner, is ultimately the mostly cereal fruit bar that actually blended, quite intimately and then compressed into a strip. It's not bad, so i'm guessing! This is coffee.
I'm just going to open this up and check. I shall sniff it. You've got sugar, but you've not got milk, but then again some of these countries. They don't generally have them.

Okay, quite a burnt smell, very fine, powdered, instant coffee, that's nice! It's got a cherry! Flavor to these two bits of candy have dissolved completely they've turned into liquid yeah, more or less. This one is a little hard lozenge, oh coffee, that should be a clue. Coffee. It's a coffee, flavored sweet, hard, coffee caramel.

So does that mean just about covered everything? I've almost covered everything shouldn't be that sweet in the mouth should i that was foolish. Is this thing? This thing is supposed to uh, be left for about 30 minutes, but tell you what i'm going to shake it and then i'll tell you if it's really chlorinated, because the little uh the little pill thing has dissolved. Watch me get chlorinated water everywhere, it's not bad! There is a hint of chlorine there, but it's not really stinking of chlorine. Um tell you what i'll pause momentarily right while i eat some of this stuff and then i'll come back after a allotted length of time and we'll pour some of this into glass and i'll taste it and i'll tell you how chlorinate it tastes ready time for The chlorinated water taste test, so i shall pop this back open.

I should mention. I went online, look for these little tablets and i found other brands. In fact, in the uk uh boots the chemist, our local pharmacy company in the uk, our most prominent one, probably uh, sells packs of 50 water purification tablets for about eight pounds and each one is good for a litre of water, so that's equivalent to 50. Liters of water, in that they're called plaque dissolve, and one really interesting thing about it - was that the main ingredient was chlorine, but the other ingredient was silver and further investigation on amazon showed that there were.

You can get uh tablets based purely on silver that are supposed to preserve the water for six months. They take longer to do the initial sterilization. This one is rated for about half an hour. The other one said: leave it for two hours, but it's supposed to have a very, very long shelf life after that the water, once it's been treated, that goes along with the vintage cultures that used to put silver coins in the urns to keep the water fresh.

Okay, very slight chloriney smell only the slightest taste of chlorine, like you know when. Well, you guys won't get this i'm up quite late at night. They that means there's low water use locally. So sometimes i pour water at the top and it's they've just dosed it with chlorine, and you can get that slight hint.

That's what it's like this of that the early morning, chlorine smell, but it doesn't affect the flavor and anyway, that's very interesting, useful to know the other thing in russia. They use potassium permanganate, they'll, actually not just for purification of water. I think they used to do that here, the crystals that made it go or tablets and made it go a very slight shade of pink, but they also use it as a medicine, apparently that if only the slightest just the tiniest hint pink in the water and They'll sort of drink it as an additional treatment. You get plenty of toilet paper, that's quite nice! That's good and generous they're, not making you do that sort of one sheet.
Is your limit masochistic army thing that they sometimes do? Another thing i could mention about these crackers is that they've got that distinct of poppy or caraway seed to them. Taste them it's quite nice, but they are rock solid they're like total military grade, it see as says piast 1765, that's probably the date. They were invented and they're they're indestructible crackers just like they always supply in the military rations. They're.

Just really tough crackers um. I suppose, ultimately you it means they last a long time and they're resilient. They certainly won't crack when you spread stuff on them, but there we go. I think that was mikao who sent that military ration um.

So thanks for doing that, it was very interesting um. I think it's more an emergency ration for general use, not just military uh, very interesting, i'm gon na sniff, one of these wipes as well. That should that's the last thing. The only thing i've not really tried, isn't it? Oh very synthetic lemony, flavor and slightly yellow as well.

I'm gon na wipe my face. Let's see what makes everything sting. Oh, it's a very odd deep sovereignty-based smell and the quites are rippy they're kind of fragile interesting, but that's that very interesting, very enjoyable. I do like the mres they're, always fun.


10 thoughts on “Polish MRE / emergency ration taste test”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Francis Newmarch says:

    Prey tell me. Which other channel covers subjects from screw-less electrical sockets to Polish emergency rations and has the ability to keep you entertained and educated and

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Krzosu says:

    The white waffle coating on the bar is meant to keep your fingers clean- instead of getting sticky – American style MRE bars dont have that and you end up with your hands sticky in corn syrup. – and the white coating allows you to tear it into eatable chunks while making sure you dont have to wipe your hands everytime you do so.

    Piast on the Suchary (hard crackers) is the name of the producer and year of its founding.

    Fasolka po bretońsku roughly translates into – beans made in british style – and yes in polish they usually contain large chunks of susage 😀

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael Warner says:

    Little known fact – the Crackers are actually meant to be used as a last line of self-defense for when you run out of ammunitions so that way opposing forces can have their skull cracked after it makes contact with their head.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rob Lamb says:

    Like all ration packs they are idea for picnics – in this case its more like Polish Roulette than Russian. One pack per person (picked at random, so you can't deliberately poison that particularly noxious brat whilst giving the caviar and tinned blinis to your partner of the moment) and either eat it yourself or serve as a buffet.

    The 'crackers' are basically old naval hard tack. Apart from the sailors the only things that could eat them were weevils! The idea was to soak them in whatever else you were eating (eg soup or stew, usually for about a week) or as an alternative to visiting the dentist.

    Also, being tinned, as long as they're not rusted through, or 'blown' try should last almost forever without deterioration, although anything pre-WW2 I'd pass on it because of the type of solder used. If the tin is dented but 'new/recent' it should be ok, but otherwise I'd give it a miss. This point is entertainment only, not a guarantee! So if you die of rust-, lead-, or other related poisoning don't blame me.

    PS: I still recommend saving the Scottish ration pack for yourself. Also there isn't room in those tinnies for the beans AND crackers. But if there was then there'd be room for air and possibly unpasteurised bacteria to ruin both the meal and subsequently for the toilet paper. Remember these are for military campaign use and a sojer on the loo can't shoot very well and easily be detected downwind!

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Wiktor Szymczak says:

    I like our rations cause you can get creative with them. This can with handle can be used for days if cleaned. SI-1 are pretty much unedible as is (closer to hardtack than anything) but are great for soups. And stove can be used even without fuel tablets. I like it.
    Ps. Some of them have a few plastic cups and multiple plastic knifes and forks and spoons. Nice stuff to get tradey.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Alexander Kupke says:

    Depending of what kind of chlorine compound they use for that water sterilization tablet, you may not actually smell a lot of chlorine if you already start with rather clean water.
    Usually the strong chlorine smell we are used to e.g. from swimming pools is actually the "spent" chlorine bound in chloramines.
    I guess drinking it there may be more chlorine taste than smell. But I guess in the field, the taste of chlorine beats dehydration or diarrhea by far.

    For German rations I was told by a former soldier about the hard crackers (nicknamed "Panzerkeks") that they were best used stacked with shoe polish to light up. not sure how true this is but they are said to work great to mark a helicopter landing spot.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars greenaum says:

    The fruity drink, depends on how much actual stuff you mixed with the water. Doesn't look like much. It's possible to put flavourings and sweetener into a tiny little chunk, to make a lot of flavoured drink. The idea would be that it's preferable to plain water, so would encourage a soldier to drink it and stay properly hydrated. Particularly if it's water you've had to chlorinate so doesn't taste too nice. Shame there isn't a filter of some sort in there, I dunno. Average stream is probably fine to drink if there aren't any dead badgers upstream.

    Drinking too much chlorine is bad, cos it kills off your intestinal flora, creating unfortunate bowel incidents. There's three words you don't want together. There are little kits you can get that filter water with a hand pump and a load of filter cartridges but they're the sort of thing one man would carry for a whole group. They mention using activated carbon, and silver, to clean and sterilise.

    You can also get true reverse osmosis hand-pumps that would fit in a lunchbox, but they're aimed at mariners surviving on capsized boats, so cost quite a bit more. They can desalinate and remove basically everything that isn't H2O.

    Anyway… apparently proper hydration is a big thing for soldiers. I suppose since We ("the west", or more accurately "the rich") seem to continually piss off and rob people in hot countries, staying liquidised is something to bear in mind.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars greenaum says:

    Aw Cliiive! Microwaving the flipping beans, when we all wanted to see the little cooker thingy make some Polish fire. You could set it up on a big rock from the garden or something, or actually in the garden! Do your David Attenborough impression.

    I can see why you'd want to keep the teeny cooker for later, cos it's the sort of thing I'd want to hoard as well, but viewers have demands!

    Incidentally can you still get those Hexamine burners from army surplus shops? I kept one for ages as a kid, just with the thought that one day it'd be useful! No, it's too precious to actually light! Also (while I'm rambling) the local army surplus shop had a big load of little 15V batteries, a few for a pound, which were fun to rig up into 100V or so and zap yourself. I assumed they had a naturally high impedance, but now I'm pretty sure they were already flat, actually.

    Hey man once in the USA in the 1950s some company sold a camping light, that was just a fluorescent tube, and a huuuge pack of D-cell batteries made up to 100-odd volts! Battery pack was replacable, of course, and cost a flipping fortune for your 10 hours or whatever. I suppose it's the only way to do it, if you require enough lighting to illuminate an office, out in the jungle.

    Anyway… looks like the hexamine burner has evolved, or else the Polish heard that old racist proverb about white-skin man make big fire, get warm collecting sticks. More efficient instead to have a little pellet and have all of the heat absorbed into your weird beans mixture. Even the burner itself, used to be a fold-out platform with spikey legs and a platform for your fuel tablets, now not even that, you're required to find your own stone.

    I think I prefer the old British design. And overall the MRE isn't as good as the Scottish one with a packet of fags and a Curly Wurly, and a bit of strontium they found round the back of Dounreay to keep you warm for the rest of your life.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ko6i says:

    The baked beans are typical Polish baked beans called literally "Brittany style beans" which contain, apart from the tomato sauce, pork fat, sausage and marjoranne seasoning, and looking at the French wiki it seems that the French, including the Bretons, have nothing to do with the stuff. Weird.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars vsv nrg says:

    your comments on the hardness of the crackers, such things were essential on ships in the 1800's and possibly the 1700's. they were made to be weevil resistant. i'm trying to remember the name built into the facade of the 1854 built biscuit factory very near to the largest pier in melbourne, australia. something about "steam packet biscuit company".

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