A Survival Guide To The Best And Worst MREs

1953/54 Ft Knox. The Army had a surfeit of 'old' C rations. On Wednesdays, the KPs were instructed to open cans of Cs and to dump them in a 30 gallon pot. One pot each for breakfast, lunch and dinner! The slop chute in the PX was invaluable to Soldiers with $!

Back in the day, we had the franks and beans - otherwise known as the five fingers of death.
They were coated in some sort of meat oil-like substance that would congeal into a disgusting slimy lard covering and cementing together the franks. That was the all-time worst, with an honorable mention to chicken ala crud.

To rid the battalion of the C Rations when I was in Germany from 82-84 they would have open lunch from 11 to 1 and would have cans in hot water ready to eat. You could take two or three and then whatever you wanted from the pile of extras. I actually liked the "Baby Claymore", Beans and Franks, and the Spaghetti.
When we received the dark brown bagged MREs my favorite was the Chicken ala King, BBQ beef slices, and the beans and franks. When the newer lighter brown bags came out They were all pretty good I thought, though I was partial to beef stew and the ravioli.

But....to each his own :)