2 Vintage 1985 MREs from Stickyfingaz745 Meal Ready to Eat Review 

After Steve eats the whole nut bar: "Let's get this guy out onto a stretcher." *Paramedics lay him out*. Steve wakes up: "Nice!"

This has got to be the most laid back case of food poisoning I have ever seen.

I love how Steve talks himself into eating stuff he doesn't want to.

"Oh great. Oh no. Oh shi-." Steve1986 1986-2015 Your headstone.

I'm going to start a band with the name Rancid Nuts.

We ate it cold. Back then a heated version meant lay it in the sun or a vehicle engine compartment of muffler.

I remember eating these back in 90. A guy in my company actually found a chicken beak in the a la king. It was real I saw it!!!! lol

I was in the Army from 83-86. I actually started out with C-Rats when i first got to my unit. They were replaced with the MRE's. You get used to them to the point where some of them tasted good.

2 Vintage 1985 MRE's from Stickyfingaz Review (Gone Sexual) (Got arrested) (Died)

Opens up bag filled with, apparently, vomit. "That doesn't look so bad." What a life you must lead ;-)

A brave reviewer, taking one for the team! Great job Steve. I appreciate your sacrifice. I still have a number of 30+ year old MREs waiting to be reviewed. I keep putting them off and they keep getting OLDER!

(Food Poisoning) in the title... This gotta be good.

Stephen Russell 1989MREInfo, are you opening rotten food in your room again?! "No, Mom!"

Steve would be fun to party with. If Steve is a drinker and/or partakes in getting stoned then I could see him breaking out a bunch of random MREs and playing MRE Roulette.NICE

AH! My era! I loved that fruitcake. I used t love that Falcon candy bar some of them used to have too. The cheese was really oily when it was new. I also loved the pork and hamburger pucks. I would eat them like jerky.

I served during this era and Chicken a la king was a real iffy one to eat then. We had 2 guys suffered from food poisoning from it if memory serves.

You know why you got food poisoning?You didnt care about it that much,wanna know why? YOU DIDNT SAY THE PHRASE "lets get this right onto a tray (jump cut) NICE"

“I’m determined to eat this whole thing. I mean why not, right?” So many reasons, Steve. So many.

I liked Chicken Ala Thing (CAT) mixed with crunched up crackers, pepper and some left over tabasco sauce. While taking part in Operation Desert Storm, we picked up a stray dog out in the middle of nowhere in Iraq. We took him along with us as our company mascot. That dog which we named “Scud” ate everything except CAT! I have a picture of him sitting by a freshly opened CAT with a disappointed look on his face. Makes me smile every time I look at it.

This gives me flashbacks to the couple of early 80's MREs I reviewed. Once those packets are opened, just trying to get through the review at all becomes extremely difficult. Nice work mate, I'm enjoying these.

“Crackers smell terrible, I’d be trying them if they were good. What the hell I’ll try them anyway” 😂 dude your stomach must be made of titanium lol

"it's not normal..." says the guy who eats 60 yo jelly bars :)

Trucker here. I've heated MRE on my dashboard. Prop it up, turn it / flip it every half hour or so. 209 miles later, it's lunchtime. I also used a hose clamp and a brown pouch to replace a busted wheel seal. Drove 93 miles to the terminal shop. LOL, they took pictures!

6:08 - Beavis and Butthead moment!

In old MRE rations...sometimes the food eats you.

Idk y I watch these videos but i cannot stop

Dude sometimes I worry for your health lol. I will be sitting watching pleading with the video "don't eat it!!". Thanks for taking one for the team!

Steve, would you like to know how we heated those up so long long ago? Body heat. not kidding. you get an hour or 3 of down time, you sleep. And you tuck those packs into areas that coalesced heat. Such as armpits or abdomen or groin(If you're brave. those edges can cut).

Please to open the meatballs! You've built up the suspense of curiosity now:)

Steve man, I laughed so hard. As soon as you where taking those meatballs outta the main bag, I couldn't quit laughing. I've watched all your vids. Best mre reviewer on RU-vid. Keep making vids bro.

The arc of Steve deciding to take the plunge was so gosh dang funny. Dude is a gem.

The way he defiantly perseveres through these mostly spoiled rations is admirable. But, ultimately I feel like he is dancing on the razor's edge of insanity throughout the experience.

That ration was older than Master of Puppets. Holy shit.

I ate the chicken ala thing and the meatballs in BBQ sauce in the field back in 1985 (USAF SP) and they weren't much better then. I'd forgotten about the fruit cake (shudder).

ah, that 30 year old cheese spread is sebaceous cyst material.

You should make a series called "Rations from Hell" reserved for those that are a crime against humanity.

The Catsup looked like a piece torn off of a roof shingle.

Lol! Man, this was fun to watch.. I've got more of these if you need to torture yourself a little bit more haha! The catsup you sent me was perfect.. I would've been disappointed if it looked like yours lol!

Heated my MRE meals by vice-gripping the foil packs to the exhaust of my M901. No one I knew liked Chicken A La King when they were fresh. Loved the meatballs tho. Always had plenty of Ramen noodles to mix stuff with.

I ate both of those menus back in 85-89. They were horrid back then too! Great channel dude.

I had this exact same MRE but I ate it back in 1986!

a review from the pre-NICE period. I can see in my mind some Asian consultant guy in a wrinkled suit with a ponytail telling Steve to come up with something like Emeril's "let's kick it up a notch" or"Bang!"

You should have a scientist do swabs on these to see what's growing in them XC

Wow you have gshultz9, gundog4314, and Kiwi Dude in your comments..... this is like a gathering of the top MRE reviewers on youtube. I really enjoyed this video, you sir are a brave man, I commend you. "salt is salt unless it came out of an RCAF ration".... yeah that review was brutal, had me on the floor laughing, never heard of bad salt prior to that.

Mmmmmm, nothing like a gassy bag of fermenting meatballs.

and why do they keep putting cheese and milk powder in these things ? my late Father was WW2 and spoke of how bad the cheese in a tin was

By the way, your videos are great Steve. My son and I enjoy watching them together and are even considering doing a few mre reviews ourself. Keep up the awesome videos and thanks for being a bada$$ trying all the old food! You rock bro.

Man watching these old MRE videos really makes me wish I had a compost bin handy.

"And, this is in my room, too! Why do I keep doing this, in here?" Basic human decency? Some things are best done in the privacy of one's bedroom, if at all ;) .

I'm so afraid of nuts becoming rancid after watching these videos.

We used to heat the entree on the top of a deuce and half. When you're in the field, you will or would appreciate it. You're hungry, you eat, you don't even think about it. We also took the instant Nescafe coffee and just opened the pack, pour it in your mouth and drink some water to wash it down. Sometimes, we didn't have the luxury of a really hot meal. You really can't know until you've been in the field. Granted, these MRE's are totally outdated. But back in the day. . . SFC King (Retired)

Wow. This brings back memories. I LOVED the fruitcake / chocolate nut cake / cherry nut cake "back in the day". Wouldn't even touch the cheese spread at a year old. Chicken ala king wasn't bad (albeit nearly 40 years ago). Nor were the beef patties or ham and chicken loaf. Sucked that we didn't even HAVE an FRH at the time, but it did fill the empty gut. Coffee was ok, and I did the mocha deal even back in 85. Peanut butter was the protein savior for sure. I do know that I couldn't WAIT to get back to mess hall for the eggs / french toast / gravy over all / 4 glasses of OJ and 4 glasses of chocolate milk that I consumed regularly in mid 80s Germany. Man - what a different time. @steve1989mreinfo - where you been? LOVE the vids.

My stepdad was in the USAF reserves and he would bring me and my brother a couple of these when he did his active weekends. We loved them, we would hike out into the woods and eat ours. Fun times.

That cheese looks like something that will come out of a squeezed cyst! Yummy!!!

I was stationed at RAF Lakenheath, UK back in 85'. We used to say the best way to eat the chicken ala king was to put alot of salt on it and don't look at it when you eat it.

"Weird fruitcake that's kinda nice" Sooo, my old neighbor?

Oh my, I had completely forgotten about the dehydrated potato patty..LOL..Great job Steve, Excellent Video.. Keep 'em coming

The chicken mess was one of the better ones back in the day. The ham/spam was good as well. I never had one heated, so I have no clue if they were better warm. Those meatballs were nasty, even when new! I remember when they came out with new menu items and there was a spaghetti that would get you 2 packs of smokes and a gross hotdogs in jelly meal on a trade! Haha The spaghetti came with a tiny bottle of Tabasco in the accessory pack. Oh, the memories.

I went to basic training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey in 1989. I loved the chicken a la king! It was one of the best MRE's I had. The ones you hated to see were the dehydrated pork or beef patties!

I love it when he argues with himself! I’m not going to open it I’m not opening it no way !! I’m going to open it !!😂

26:15 - A timestamp for those wondering where the food poisoning starts

My mom remembers this stuff! I showed her this and she's like, yeah yeah, I had this stuff in the army. Really wouldn't go into detail but okay. It's sort of cool I guess... gnarly cheese spread, looks like peanut butter XD

These are ones from my era and bring back some memories. I love seeing all of the different reviews. Keep up the GREAT work, Steve!! You're awesome!

"Let's take a look at these meatballs." *BALLOON POP* "Nice hiss."

If commented in another one of your vid looking for a certain MRE my uncles used to bring me as a teen n the 80s after one of them participated in Operation Urgent Fury and this was be of the ones I was looking for I remember the fruitcake actually being good! We had stacks of these in the 80s and ate alit of them but this was a fav of mine.Thank you for posting this and bringing me back to the 80s

There is absolutely NOTHING to be gained from opening those spoiled meatballs. Just throw it away - CAREFULLY. Or some poor animal is going to die.

My sister loved the meatballs in BBQ sauce. I had watched your reviews for several days then I asked her what she loved/hated. She served in the USAF from 1979 to 1999. She hated the barf in a bag (Turkey ale king) lol.

Both menus were a routine meal for me, among others, in the 80s in W. GE field ops in the FACP. Usually ate it cold, right out of the bag but on occasion would tie a line to the bag and put into an immersion heater (a water filled garbage can with a diesel heater submerged in it). That cheese spread is CLEARLY not what came out of the pouch in 1986. And the fruit cake/chocolate nut cake were much better looking then. That potato patty, and the dehydrated pork patty, were worth money.

Really love your MRE videos. Believe me it was always called "Chicken ala S*#t" and never chicken ala thing. These are the MRE's I remember. My first ever MRE was a pork patty in December 1984. If you know or anyone else knows about the old school MRE "Gorilla Cookie" I am looking for some photos or video of them. It was an MRE chocolate cookie from the 80's and early 90's. It was a round chocolate cookie but there were two or three of these in a single pack and they were always fused together, hence the name "Gorilla Cookie" because it was so thick. You had to eat it that way because you could not pry them apart. I remember everyone always ate them with the peanut butter packet. Thing about it is, from what I remember, this cookie went great with the peanut butter but the menus it came with always had the cheese packet's. Seen some bad fights break out over "Gorilla Cookies" and those peanut butter packets.

imagine Steve ordering at a nice restaurant- food comes to table on tray- "NICE".

I remember these, I was active duty at this time and I ate many of these when they were fresh. I remember half of them sucked even when they were new, lol. Thanks for the ride down memory lane.

That cheese in the first ration looked exactly the same as the chicken. Have you ever thought about getting sponsorship for your channel from Immodium or Gaviscon? Lol!

My problems from that Era were from a two legged Nut-cake.

Mmmm... It's brimming with botulism.

I was an old marine when I saw my first MRE in 85. 29 palms and I told my guys use lots of water but one guy passed out after eating the dried potatoes without water.

“Oh! It’s botulism! Look! It’s totally bulged!” I laughed till I cried. Thank you, Steve1989.

One small bite for man, one giant leap for ration reviewing kind...... Lol.. Your reaction "That doesn't look so bad!"... My reaction (dry wretching)...

Steve that cheese spread looks like something from Dr Pimple Popper LOL....

Hey Steve, I love your videos. I've seen them all at least twice! Anyway, I always loved these old MRE's from the 80s. I used to go to my local army surplus stores and buy them when I was a kid. My friends and I always thought that all the items that were packaged in them were cool! I always tried to find the ones that said not for flight, pre-flight uses.😂😂😂😂

I remember eating fresh 80’s rations from Subic/Clark as a kid. They weren’t good at all, but they were a novelty, especially the freeze dried stuff.

sorry for the olfactory attack! back in the day, this was the stuff! I was kinda weird in that I saved the cakes for road marches along with the cookie chocolate covered. I couldn't stand the maple cake.

What's the chemical reason rancid nuts are making your tongue swell?

We used to abuse neophytes with chicken ala king in the 1980's and early 1990s... and the fruitcake always tasted like a bicycle tire... it took bravery to eat back then, it takes massive courage in 2015.

I love your videos! I ate MRE crackers/jam as a kid and I loved them. Your videos remind me of that joy

I am dying to see what is in that meatball package sir steve.

"Not gonna open this in my room. Unless you guys want me to." I'm reading the comments and watching this video over two years after posting but DID Steve open the package?!? I can't find out in the comments. LMAO

This is what we had in Jabaal with the 82nd on the Kuwaiti border 4 days after the invasion. They were out of date then! And the Army had the veterinary services test and sign them off. Try the beef slices (with veins!). We would trade the components individually because of the heavy calorie load. The nutcakes with military mocha were my favs in the morning.

From all the preservatives eaten, this guy should live for a couple of decades now.

During the late 80s and early 90s, the chicken ala king was my favorite MRE.

Please don't open those meatballs!

“Waiter, bring me a glass of the ‘85, it’s a great year” “The wine sir?” “The instant coffee type 1”

We need a live stream of Steve, RC Gusto, Sticky Fingaz and Gun Dog.

I remember those two MRE’s. Two of the best in the case. They WERE good! Chicken ala King was awesome! The meatballs were great too. Chocolate nut cake was THE best! Too bad they didn’t last.

The comment about the mucus membranes and the digestive tract letting soldiers know if the rations were good or not is true. During that time (early/mid 80s) my brother's tank squadron starved for weeks in the German winter (don't you love it when supply forgot your squadron exists???) that they ate "snow sandwiches" for weeks. But it was nothing like being in the hospital for weeks from FOOD POISONING puking up their guts and poohing as if they had chorea. Steve, be safe. Some of those bacteria has been known (like Clostridia) to blow up food plants (perfect infection point is chocolate!).

Brings back memories of my time in the Army National Guard. After a couple days of those at Ft. Irwin National Training Center (NTC) in the Mojave Desert, and it gets old real quick. Absolutely would not touch the majority of that stuff. The only thing that was semi-palatable was the Ham Slices. The second-generation (Tuna With Noodles), which came out in the early '90s were a step up, but eating those day after day got old real quick too.

The definitive information source for eating rancid 30yr old cake.

This is as old as I am, that coffee was packed the day I was born. :)

The chicken a la king was the good ration. The bad one was the pork patty. Nobody wanted the pork patty. I buried one at Camp Bullis.

I learned that if you could warm up the Chicken A La King, it would taste pretty good. The warmer you could get the a la king, even hot, the better the taste. Add some Tabasco sauce and the flavor improved more. The earliest complaint from the soldiers was that the entree provided too little food. It took the Army bureaucracy several years to respond but the entree increased from 5 ounces to 8, which the soldiers appreciated. Steve learned the hard way that those 1985 MREs were just too old. I could tell just by looking at it. The Chicken A La King was too dry. Originally it was full of creamy sauce. The fruitcake was dark. Originally it would come out of the retort package the color of parchment. I liked the doughy MRE fruitcake. It turned me on to civilian fruitcakes from then on. Of course the crackers would spoil and taste bleachy. Note. Back around 1977-78, State of Hawaii civil defense officials and a local newstation team visited a civil defense shelter storage facility on the outskirts of Honolulu. They opened several sealed packages of wheat crackers manufactured in the 1950s. Upon sampling some of the ancient, bleachy wheat crackers, several of the samplers raced for the nearest water fountain. They had a SteveMRE experience. I would have warned Steve not to purchase that box of decayed MREs. Even MREs from the early 2000s are not likely to be edible.

just seen your video.....I was in the Air Force from 82 to 86.....there were only about 5 or 6 different types of MRES that I knew of.....the Ham slices were the best....Chicken ala king....meatball in BBQ sauce..beans and whiners and one other.....the cheese we used to call baby crap....the had dehydrated fruit cocktail......orange cake and chocolate chip cake.....fudge bar....and what we called John Wayne cookies, two chocolate covered cookies stuck together with wax paper you couldn't pull apart.