Post by leatherneckpa on Mar 10, 2011 17:02:58 GMT -4
Shawn will be too young to actually partake in this 'cause MRE's were just coming on line when I left the Corps in '82. So it's up to some of you "senior" contributors and canning experts to answer this one.
I was opening a can of peaches for lunch dessert this afternoon and it got me wondering ,,,,, how long could you count on canned food lasting? My dad was a meat cutter and we always had two BIG floor freezers in the basement. One was for breads and frozen veggies. The other was for meat. The last time I was down in FL for Mom we ate chicken thighs that went in the freezer in 2007. Tasted fine, decent texture, and nobody got sick. Dad always said as long as it stayed frozen you could eat it. And I remember reading somewhere about testing of "flash-frozen" mastodon that was deemed viable and edible. Now that's been awhile! 30,000 years, more or less.[/b]
Oldest thing I can personally attest to is a can of C-rats. The Corps was still using them on a regular basis when I got out. MRE's were considered "newfangled" and really not very tasty. To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee, "You could live on them, but they tasted like shit." So anyway, jarheads being the sensitive eaters that we are, we used to sit around and compare the dates on our C-rat cans. Just before I got out I remember pulling a can of scrambled eggs and ham that was dated Jun '61. I remember that clearly because I laughed and told the guys that the eggs in that can were older than my wife.
So how long do you experts think a home canned jar of beans, corn, beef, or venison night be good for? I know for a fact that I have eaten cans of spaghetti and meatballs, beef and rocks, and ham slices that were all over 15 years old. In fact, I never ate a box of C-rats that was under 10 years old.
I was opening a can of peaches for lunch dessert this afternoon and it got me wondering ,,,,, how long could you count on canned food lasting? My dad was a meat cutter and we always had two BIG floor freezers in the basement. One was for breads and frozen veggies. The other was for meat. The last time I was down in FL for Mom we ate chicken thighs that went in the freezer in 2007. Tasted fine, decent texture, and nobody got sick. Dad always said as long as it stayed frozen you could eat it. And I remember reading somewhere about testing of "flash-frozen" mastodon that was deemed viable and edible. Now that's been awhile! 30,000 years, more or less.[/b]
Oldest thing I can personally attest to is a can of C-rats. The Corps was still using them on a regular basis when I got out. MRE's were considered "newfangled" and really not very tasty. To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee, "You could live on them, but they tasted like shit." So anyway, jarheads being the sensitive eaters that we are, we used to sit around and compare the dates on our C-rat cans. Just before I got out I remember pulling a can of scrambled eggs and ham that was dated Jun '61. I remember that clearly because I laughed and told the guys that the eggs in that can were older than my wife.
So how long do you experts think a home canned jar of beans, corn, beef, or venison night be good for? I know for a fact that I have eaten cans of spaghetti and meatballs, beef and rocks, and ham slices that were all over 15 years old. In fact, I never ate a box of C-rats that was under 10 years old.
