Evil idea for rations cache....

[Schone23666]

Well...maybe not so evil as far as British, Australian or New Zealand characters (or anyone who lived for a time in the Commonwealth) in T2K/Merc 2000, but let's say your characters stumble upon a considerable, or at least rather decent food cache somewhere. Looks like enough to feed your characters for a little while, and maybe some extra to trade. Of course, you want to check out the contents, and first find that these came from the UK Commonwealth. Hmmm....upon closer inspection....

A 1/3 or so of the boxes contain hard bread/crackers/biscuits. The rest...?

VEGEMITE!!!

Or, MARMITE! If you will, aka "salty tractor grease".

The look on your, say, American or Central European PC characters may be somewhere along the lines of "WTF????" But who knows? You might have just found something you can use to bargain with a nearby British/UK Commonwealth cantonment nearby! And you MIGHT be able to use it as a very thick temporary grease, it's certainly got almost the same viscosity it seems.

I only thought of this after purchasing my first ever jar of vegemite....well, marmite to be more specific as this one was made in the UK.

I spread it very thin on toast as they recommended, and ate it.

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to grow big and strong eating this. Not my first time trying this, but still...

Targan, you owe me $2.00.

[Cdnwolf]

Or they come upon these....

[Cdnwolf]

As a comparison..

[Targan]

I get that Vegemite and Marmite aren't to everyones' tastes but if you found some in T2K and took a look at the nutritional information on the side of the jar, you'd certainly be tempted to try and add it to other foods as a supplement because it's chock full of vitamin B and is also a good source of salt.

[Olefin]

you could always have them find something like a whole case of canned lima beans or brussel sprouts - I know some people (my kids especially) who would be not too happy having to eat that

[rcaf_777]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

As a comparison..

Hard to make out what meal what Canadian ration pictured

Around the beginning of the TW War they would have peanut butter or honey in a yellow tube, like you find in tooth paste. Gum was found in breakfast meal too along with instant coffee

Something else to remember even rations can go bad. I seem to remember I bunch bad rations found by the Canadian military around the mid 1990's. Common practice was for a lot of combat arms companies and squadrons to keep rations stored in Sea Containers stored within unit lines, this lead to many rations freezing and thawing repeatedly depending on how long they were stored. I think some troops got sick? They them came up new storing procedures and they changed ordering procedures for rations. I was working full time for my reserve unit at the time and we ended up throwing a lot away, we never did reorder new rations as we did have space for them due to the new storing rules and found cheaper to pay for service battalion to cook for us using a flying kitchen or field kitchen when we did field exercises.

Also GM take note, Field rations and regular food do not mix. I remember being on rations for a week exercise, we had cheeseburger and fries for supper as the last supper. Which was great until 20 min later and nature called and I had to run to the blue rocket only to find a very long line, I will end the story here as no person should have heard the noises I made in the blue rocket

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Targan

I get that Vegemite and Marmite aren't to everyones' tastes but if you found some in T2K and took a look at the nutritional information on the side of the jar, you'd certainly be tempted to try and add it to other foods as a supplement because it's chock full of vitamin B and is also a good source of salt.

I've tried both, each on a couple of different occasions, and couldn't swallow more than a bite or two of either. That said, if I was literally starving, I wouldn't be so picky.

A ration cache is an interesting scenario. I doubt that many modern rations would have been produced after the major nuclear exchanges, meaning that very few modern rations would be around by the summer of 2000. Those found then would be about 3 years old, at the freshest. As Rcaff_777 pointed out, spoilage would be an issue, depending on the age of the rations and how/when they were stored/cached.

When I get home tonight, I'll post a link in this thread to our broader discussion of food in T2K.

[unkated]

Somehow, I imagine that after a few months on short rations, any prepared food that does not have to be grown and harvested, will be acceptable.

I detest lima beans. but I detest starving more.

Uncle Ted

[ArmySGT.]

[Schone23666]

Originally Posted by Targan

I get that Vegemite and Marmite aren't to everyones' tastes but if you found some in T2K and took a look at the nutritional information on the side of the jar, you'd certainly be tempted to try and add it to other foods as a supplement because it's chock full of vitamin B and is also a good source of salt.

Oh, I don't doubt that. Waste not, want not, as they say. But the term "Salty tractor grease" is still a very accurate description.

And the above video about that Russian field ration.....whatever anyone says about it, it is apparently miles above what the Soviets actually had for prepacked field rations during the Cold War era, particularly in Afghanistan. Not to mention quite a few nasty cases of botulism.

Hmmm...after some food for thought, perhaps we can get a bit more creative here. Marmite/Vegemite after all, is just more of a spread/additive, so perhaps we can go with something a bit more meaty, more fishy, higher in protein? Because you always need some good protein.

How about....a VERY large cache of....SURSTROMMING!

[Schone23666]

Surstromming is a pickled fish in brine, sealed in containers and allowed to ferment. The process takes about six months. The resulting fermentation causes the tins to bulge, thus quite a bit of gas will escape once the cans are punctured, and it is believed to be one of the foulest-smelling things you will ever encounter with food. Supposedly so bad that there are rumored instances where firemen or other personnel have been called to residences on concern of a possible gas leak or a broken sewer line, only to learn that someone had simply opened a tin of surstromming. It is considered a culinary dish in Sweden.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming

And here's a nice picture for ya:



And an even better one:




Look on the bright side though....if you can't eat it, you could probably utilized them as stink bombs against those pesky marauder forces....

[Targan]

Oooh, that's nasty stuff.

[Cdnwolf]

Originally Posted by Schone23666

Surstromming is a pickled fish in brine, sealed in containers and allowed to ferment. The process takes about six months. The resulting fermentation causes the tins to bulge, thus quite a bit of gas will escape once the cans are punctured, and it is believed to be one of the foulest-smelling things you will ever encounter with food. Supposedly so bad that there are rumored instances where firemen or other personnel have been called to residences on concern of a possible gas leak or a broken sewer line, only to learn that someone had simply opened a tin of surstromming. It is considered a culinary dish in Sweden.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming

And here's a nice picture for ya:



And an even better one:




Look on the bright side though....if you can't eat it, you could probably utilized them as stink bombs against those pesky marauder forces....

Or slather it on yourself as an insect repellent.

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by unkated

Somehow, I imagine that after a few months on short rations, any prepared food that does not have to be grown and harvested, will be acceptable.

I detest lima beans. but I detest starving more.

Uncle Ted

I can not say for sure, but in 2003 we had to sit our troops down and watch them eat, we had been eating MRE's for about eight months straight and the troops would rather not eat anything than eat another MRE. Also speaking of MRE's the best ones I ever had was the extrem cold weather MRE, I do not know if they are really that much better of if it was just the change from the standard ones that made it so good.