Military Meals More Ready to Eat

Truth be told, the chicken pesto pasta -- star entry of the Army’s new combat rations for troops in battle -- was flavorful, though a bit mushy.

As in kitchens across the world, the military’s goal for pasta is tender, but firm. But to make a combat ration that can survive as long as eight years, it takes more than a gentle boil. Army pasta is precooked for an hour and a half at 250 degrees and 15 pounds per square inch of pressure.

“It is very difficult to put a pasta product in an environment like that,” says Gerald Darsch, the Department of Defense’s Combat Feeding director, “and have it come out al dente.”

The Army unveiled some of its new meals ready to eat Wednesday at the Pentagon. As military chefs refine their cuisine, top on the list -- or at least most highly rated in field tests -- was the chicken pesto, with sun-dried tomatoes and farfel pasta. The dish will take the place of chicken with cavatelli and the already departed pasta with Alfredo sauce -- widely considered the military’s most disgusting mealtime offerings.

Darsch says the new dishes appeal to the changing tastes of young grunts who like hotter food. It is also an acknowledgment that troops frequently dump large amounts of hot sauce on their MREs anyway.

“We are all used to carrying a bottle of hot sauce around,” said Col. John Biggs, one of those in the Pentagon courtyard Wednesday sampling the new offerings with Lt. Col. Vincent Whitehurst. Biggs and Whitehurst gave the extra spice a thumbs up.

“It adds more flavor,” Whitehurst said, “or it conceals the preservatives.”

Most MREs also come with a container of hot sauce. Of the 24 current MREs, 15 come with Tabasco sauce, and the others have red pepper flakes, a “seasoning blend” or jalapeno ketchup.

The lunchtime line at the Pentagon to try the new MRE entrees was dozens of soldiers long Wednesday. “The Army travels on its stomach,” said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman.

The new offerings are being rolled out slowly. It takes two years for new MRE entrees to move from factory to field. That marks a dramatic improvement, Darsch says; it used to take four years. But soldiers and Marines won’t be eating the chicken pesto until 2008.

MREs date back to 1983, when they replaced the individual combat meal -- the C ration, a canned staple of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

“I am old enough to remember the ones that came in a can,” said Col. Jess Soto, a 59-year-old Vietnam veteran now working in the Pentagon. “You really had to acquire a taste for them.”

Soto said he liked the new MRE entrees being offered, but he noted he really wasn’t eating them in the right environment to truly enjoy their charm.

“They taste better if you haven’t eaten for a few days,” he said, “and you are under extreme stress.”