Russian Fieldration IRP-P (by Gruppa-L)

Did you ever wonder what russian Soldiers eats on the battlefield? Well, then you are welcome to take a culinary tour with me through the Daily Raition of the russian Military.

I had the chance that in a little “gear” exchange to get the IRP. Thanks to Hoshi from steklovata.blogspot.de for the great Deal. Well, he’ll definitley profit also from this little review.

 

Sorry for the “Semi-Professional” Pictures, but this will do the job.

The IRP-P packages has the size of 35 x 25 x 8 cm and has a weight of 1.75 kg. The plastic wrapping is waterproof – good thing though!

IRP-P stands for “ Individualny Ratsion Pitanya – Povsednevny” which means “Individual Ration – Regular or Everyday” – Now it should make Sense why it is so “big” and “heavy” in comparsion to the US MRE’s, from which you will probably need 3 to cover your 24 hours.

The Food and energy value of this ration is as shown below.

• Proteins – 128 gramm
• Fats – 103 gramm
• Carbonhydrates – 415 gramm
• Total energy value – 3100 kcal

More then enough energy you would need a day under heavy conditions!

This particular IRP-P comes with the following dishes and untensils:

• 1x 100 gramm – Liver sausage pastry – canned
• 1x 100 gramm – Vegetable porridge – canned
• 1x 250 gramm – Beef stew / Goulash – canned
• 1x 250 gramm – Pearl barley porridge – canned
• 1x 250 gramm – Beef, green peas and baby carrots stew – canned
• 1x 50 gramm – Chocolate/Nut Creme – plastic cup
• 4x 50 gramm – Hard Tacks – plastic wrapping
• 3x 20 gramm – Sugar – paper wrapping
• 1x 5 gramm – Table salt – paper wrapping
• 1x ~1 gramm – Black pepper – paper wrapping
• 1x 30 gramm – Tonic beverage solution – plastic wrapping
• 1x 30 gramm – Multivitamin beverage solution – plastic wrapping
• 1x ~ 25 gramm – Apple Jam – plastic wrapping
• 1x 5 gramm – Instant Coffee – paper wrapping
• 2x Black Tea – Teabags in plastic wrapping
• 1x Multivitamin Pill – paper/plastic wrapping
• 3x Hexamin fuel tablets with cooking frame – plastic package
• 2x Water purification pills with description – plastic wrapping
• 3x Desinfection wipes – paper/plastic wrapping
• 6x Storm matches with striking paper – plastic package
• 3x Plastic spoons and paper towels

I got everything from the IRP, except the packaging, which looks like this, and the Sugar, Pepper, Salt, etc. and cleaning utensils. Also the “Dessert” (1x 50gramm Chocolate/Nut creme – like  Nutella) and the “Hard Tacks” (4x 50gramm -total of 32 tacks) was mysteriously Missing (Hoshi ate them already!)

Nevertheless, we can all imagine what chocolate/nut creme tastes about and I don’t even have to talk about the taste of Hard Tacks.

I started with the Apple Jam, since I was really curious how this will taste! You can see the green little plastic bag on the left, which reminds me of Ketchup package from McDonald’s. It tastes great – not to sweet, not to chemical, pretty good! I can Imagine that as breakfast treat on the Hard Tacks The consisty of it was turbid, creamy – like peanut butter I would say. The taste reminded me of those littel apple-pies you can buy in some vending-machines.

 

Next up is the 100 gramm can of “Pashtet” or Liver-sausage pastry. Well, since I live in germany, I eat this very often, and like it. Same goes for this pastry – it has a great spicy (not hot spicy!) taste and would be great accompanied with those “nasty” Hard-Tacks. It is quite dense in consisty, so you will preferable use the spoon provided or your daily utility knife.

  

The 100 gramm Vegetable Porridge was the next meal on my still long voyage trough this culinary experience with a difference. It was very porridgy and soft. Reminded me instantly of Baby food. But it taste very good! You can actually identify a lot of vegetables by taste from this porridge. I tasted some Carrots, Paprika, Bean (probably kidney beans), Celery and I guess Rice. Tasty if you are fond of a fresh taste of veggies.

  

Now it’s Time to step up and start with the cans with the weight of 250 gramm. This is the Beef Stew/Goulash. The white stuff you see on the picture is fat, which turns white and get  cloggy after the cooking process and canning. Probably for some people disgusting. I am pretty sure that this dish is intended to eat heaten up, but I was in some kind of eating-spree, so I ate it cold. I am also sure that a alot of soldier ate this cold, in some tough situation – so for you and this review I give all I can. The Meat tasted very good, very fresh and full in flavor. Well there is nothing to add, only that it is a good dish for meatlovers and will probably taste even better when heaten up.

  

For a small Intermission, since I started to get kinda full and sated from all that eating, I tried the Instant Coffee. On the package description it was written to solve it in 200ml hot water. I did so and I have bad news for you coffee lovers. This Coffee taste like…well… to stay classy – not so good at all. It tastes like it has been brewed already 10 times. All watery and no coffe taste at all. Meh…But I am pretty sure it gave me still the coffein kicks.

  

Actually to be honest, at this point I was quite happy to be full and sated. Since this 250 gramm Can of Pearl Barley porridge was horrible. It tasted like dogfood with cooked grains in it. Also it was very hard and dense – I nearly broke the provided plastic spoon trying to dig in it. You can eat this dish without dying, but it was not good tasting at all – maybe this change when heated – since I again tended to eat it cold and diretcly out of the can. The Meat was, when you want to belive the description on the Can, Beef. It also appears that there was boiled buckwheat in it – that could also explain the quite hard and dense condition.

  

The Last Can in my culinary tour was a 250 gramm of Beef, green peas and baby carrots stew, which in fact was my also one of my favorites besides the vegetable porridge. It tasted very good and fresh. And that is something quite unusual for a canned meal! Only thing what could probably annoy some people are, that the Beef was mostly fat parts. I liked it anyways. Also quite satsifying in terms of hunger (not that I was already ready to explode).

 

For “Dessert” I made 1 cup of black tea (the 2 middle redish packages), which was actually very good! I prefer my tea with hot water (200ml) and a shot of milk and 1 spoon of sugar. Really enjoyed it, the Tea was very dominant in its taste and reminded me of those premium black teas from Lipton and special Tea shops. Thumbs up!

Next I took the mulitivitamin pill, which tastet and was exactly like those typical food supplements you can buy in local stores (like those A-Z vitamin stuff). The recommendation says to take the pill while eating breakfast (or afterwards).

Regarding the Spoons and napkins. – The spoons are very rugged, thick and solid made – they are in OD color and have no sharp edges like those cheap white ones. You can probably reuse them several times. The napkins reminded me of those green papier tissues you have when you go to the toilet and when you at your familydoctor. There are also quite tough and have a great soaking ability.

IN CONCLUSION I can say that this 24 hour food ration is pretty good. In terms of taste and needed energy and supplement for a day.  The cost of this food ration is around 15 to 20 Euros per package. Which is quite alot, but still, you have here 24hour covered! A single US MRE costs around 8 to 13 Euro and you need at least 2 to 3 a day. I will probably try to get my hands on some more, since I really enjoyed a few meals and also I am curious what more there is (different meals?)

02.06.2013 – by Logisticz for Gruppa L