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Post by ironhold on Jul 24, 2013 18:59:41 GMT
The current (29 July 2013) issue of the "Army Times" (one of several titles printed by the Military Times) has an article entitled "Chow With Flavor" (pg. 29).
The premise of the article is that soldiers can use MREs (Meal, Ready-To-Eat; they're the US military's main field ration) and/or items easily available from most military grocery stores to produce items that can be eaten in the field in order to either supplement the existing rations or to make the existing rations more palatable.
One of the recipes given is for something called the "Ranger Cookie".
As the article is not yet on the website (www.militarytimes.com), I shall transcribe it below:
My mom actually believed this to be a prank that the writer was pulling on the readers, as she saw no way for this to actually work in real life. I'm thinking that the process *might* work, but question how edible the resulting item would be afterwords.
As part of it, I noted the fact that these are entitled "Ranger Cookies", indicating that these were likely devised by a member of the US Army Rangers. Rangers have something of a reputation for being tough guys, such that name-brand painkiller Motrin IB is sometimes referred to as "Ranger candy" due to Rangers supposedly popping pain pills in order to keep going rather than seek medical treatment for pain and injuries.
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Post by the light works on Jul 25, 2013 0:29:34 GMT
assuming the packet is foil lined, it is theoretically possible that the burning MRE box will not produce enough heat to burn the cookie - at which point you have an emulsified mixture of caramelized sugar and flavored hydrogenated fat. - probably closer to a caramel than a cookie, but theoretically possible.
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Post by ironhold on Jul 25, 2013 1:47:40 GMT
I told my dad about this when he got home from an event at church this evening. (He spent 30 years in the Army and retired as a command sergeant major.)
He didn't particularly go into details because my mom was present, but apparently he has first-hand experience with something similar to what is described in the article.
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Post by User Unavailable on Jul 25, 2013 22:41:57 GMT
Ranger Cookie Recipe
Required items:
1 cocoa beverage powder packet 1 used cardboard box from an entree or side dish 1 packet sugar 1 packet creamer 1 campfire/heat tab/lighter/book of matches Instructions:
1. Open the cocoa beverage powder, sugar and creamer packets. 2. Pour the sugar and creamer into the cocoa packet and mix together thoroughly. 3. Then, fold the cocoa beverage powder packet at the open end several times so the mixture will not escape. 4. Place the folded packet all the way down into the cardboard box. 5. Very carefully (for obvious reasons), place the cardboard box into the glowing embers at the bottom of the campfire or set it on fire with flame from matches/lighter/heat tab. 6. Let cook for 2-3 minutes (when the cardboard is all burnt away is a good benchmark). 7. Remove item from the fire. Peel away the packet and you will have a fully cooked, hard, chocolaty Ranger Cookie.
Important! It does not take long for this to cook - any longer than 2 to 3 minutes and you'll have a charcoal briquet for a Ranger Cookie.
Note, I never tried this, nor do I know anyone who has. We Marines learned of this from some Army types, when on a training exercise. None of the Army guys made it either, they simply added water to the mix and made what the called Ranger Pudding and what we Marines just called Pudding or Chocolate Pudding.
We always assumed the Ranger Cookie thing was a joke the Army guys tried to get us to do, so they could have a big laugh. We figured that since none of them were inclined to make The tasty Ranger Cookie and instead made the pudding, was proof enough of their level of BS.
Edit:
Of course IMO, the best pudding was when you had the Applesauce packet in your MRE, then you took the Applesauce, the Cocoa Powder, Non Dairy Creamer and the Sugar packet and mixed that all together. Mmmmmmm
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Post by the light works on Jul 26, 2013 3:42:53 GMT
Ranger Cookie Recipe Required items: 1 cocoa beverage powder packet 1 used cardboard box from an entree or side dish 1 packet sugar 1 packet creamer 1 campfire/heat tab/lighter/book of matches Instructions: 1. Open the cocoa beverage powder, sugar and creamer packets. 2. Pour the sugar and creamer into the cocoa packet and mix together thoroughly. 3. Then, fold the cocoa beverage powder packet at the open end several times so the mixture will not escape. 4. Place the folded packet all the way down into the cardboard box. 5. Very carefully (for obvious reasons), place the cardboard box into the glowing embers at the bottom of the campfire or set it on fire with flame from matches/lighter/heat tab. 6. Let cook for 2-3 minutes (when the cardboard is all burnt away is a good benchmark). 7. Remove item from the fire. Peel away the packet and you will have a fully cooked, hard, chocolaty Ranger Cookie. Important! It does not take long for this to cook - any longer than 2 to 3 minutes and you'll have a charcoal briquet for a Ranger Cookie. Note, I never tried this, nor do I know anyone who has. We Marines learned of this from some Army types, when on a training exercise. None of the Army guys made it either, they simply added water to the mix and made what the called Ranger Pudding and what we Marines just called Pudding or Chocolate Pudding. We always assumed the Ranger Cookie thing was a joke the Army guys tried to get us to do, so they could have a big laugh. We figured that since none of them were inclined to make The tasty Ranger Cookie and instead made the pudding, was proof enough of their level of BS. Edit: Of course IMO, the best pudding was when you had the Applesauce packet in your MRE, then you took the Applesauce, the Cocoa Powder, Non Dairy Creamer and the Sugar packet and mixed that all together. Mmmmmmm so you are saying the myth that you can make something edible out of an MRE is plausible?
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Post by User Unavailable on Jul 26, 2013 5:04:13 GMT
Lol, well, you can make something that almost passes for edible out of MREs! Like anything else, there are some things you just won't eat, according to the individual. I absolutely wouldn't eat the Chicken a la King , no matter how hungry I was.some Marines loved it and I could almost always trade it off. Chow time in the field was always "trading time", because the platoon sgt just handed you an MRE, most times you didn't get to pick. (Unless you drove the hummer to the log train and picked chow and stopped to rat f#%k a case of MREs before you got back) You traded every thing, flavored drink mixes, cookies, accessory packs, cakes, main courses, gum, candy and so on, the only parts of an MRE that had no trade value were the wrappers and bags.
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Post by OziRiS on Jul 26, 2013 10:14:15 GMT
We used to make "night watch brew" when we were on exercise. It was made of instant coffee powder, cocoa powder and pretty much anything in the ration that had sugar in it, all mixed into boiling water. It was just that energy boost you needed at 3 am. when you'd had almost no sleep and were up for 2 hours of guard duty in a muddy foxhole. Until about 5 years ago we had the old style rations (I believe the US forces called them K-rations). We've switched over to an MRE-like thing now, which was a step up for us, but the old ones had two critical things that the new one doesn't: a tube of margarine and a chocolate bar. Those two things were put in the night watch brew when we were on exercises in the winter to provide some fat. The margarine couldn't be used for anything else since it was not only too frozen to spread out on your bread, it also tasted like crap! Mixing it in with all the rest, you could actually get it down your neck for those extra calories needed to give you the energy to keep shivering
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Post by Cybermortis on Jul 26, 2013 13:12:55 GMT
Ranger Cookie Recipe Required items: 1 cocoa beverage powder packet 1 used cardboard box from an entree or side dish 1 packet sugar 1 packet creamer 1 campfire/heat tab/lighter/book of matches Instructions: 1. Open the cocoa beverage powder, sugar and creamer packets. 2. Pour the sugar and creamer into the cocoa packet and mix together thoroughly. 3. Then, fold the cocoa beverage powder packet at the open end several times so the mixture will not escape. 4. Place the folded packet all the way down into the cardboard box. 5. Very carefully (for obvious reasons), place the cardboard box into the glowing embers at the bottom of the campfire or set it on fire with flame from matches/lighter/heat tab. 6. Let cook for 2-3 minutes (when the cardboard is all burnt away is a good benchmark). 7. Remove item from the fire. Peel away the packet and you will have a fully cooked, hard, chocolaty Ranger Cookie. Important! It does not take long for this to cook - any longer than 2 to 3 minutes and you'll have a charcoal briquet for a Ranger Cookie. Note, I never tried this, nor do I know anyone who has. We Marines learned of this from some Army types, when on a training exercise. None of the Army guys made it either, they simply added water to the mix and made what the called Ranger Pudding and what we Marines just called Pudding or Chocolate Pudding. We always assumed the Ranger Cookie thing was a joke the Army guys tried to get us to do, so they could have a big laugh. We figured that since none of them were inclined to make The tasty Ranger Cookie and instead made the pudding, was proof enough of their level of BS. Edit: Of course IMO, the best pudding was when you had the Applesauce packet in your MRE, then you took the Applesauce, the Cocoa Powder, Non Dairy Creamer and the Sugar packet and mixed that all together. Mmmmmmm The 'cookie' seems like the sort of thing you could cook up and keep in your pack or pocket when you suspect that you won't have time to sit down to 'enjoy' a MRE later in the day, or have to lighten your load and travel with minimal equipment and supplies for a short time.
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Post by User Unavailable on Jul 26, 2013 15:12:14 GMT
Thing is, there are cookies, candy bars and snack cakes already in the MREs for just such purposes and always have been.
Typically, when going out on patrol, you "strip down" the MRES, removing them from the large outer bag and inside cardboard pouches* and you then have a very space saving and lighter way to pack a meal or portions of it into a pack, asspack, or pocket.
*With the addition of the Chemical Heater Pouch, replacing the old heat tabs for "cooking" MREs, you do save the cardboard box for the main meal as it must be used with the chemical heater to warm the pouch properly. Though if you don't have time to warm it up, you just eat it cold, same as always.
I'm still convinced its just a trick played the new guys.
I'll have to look around and see if I still have a cocoa powder and accessory kit and give it a try.
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Post by oldcodger on Jul 26, 2013 15:24:43 GMT
I ate mostly Meals,Combat,Individual..incorrectly called C Rations. There was a cookbook called the Charley Ration Cookbook which included such delicacies as "Guard Relief Eggs Benedict","Fox hole Dinner for two"and the ever-popular"Breast of Chicken under Bullets".
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Post by Lokifan on Aug 1, 2013 7:19:07 GMT
In the non-military world, there are recipes for Ranger Cookies that have been around at least 50 years. They're a variation of chocolate chip cookies, usually containing oats, rice cereal, and nuts. The source of the name is intensely debated. And, by the way, they're very good when made correctly...
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Post by Lex Of Sydney Australia on Aug 10, 2013 16:38:15 GMT
In the non-military world, there are recipes for Ranger Cookies that have been around at least 50 years. They're a variation of chocolate chip cookies, usually containing oats, rice cereal, and nuts. The source of the name is intensely debated. And, by the way, they're very good when made correctly... Reminds me a bit of Anzac biscuits (that's cookies for anyone living Stateside). An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit popular here Australia and New Zealand & is made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water. You have to cook them in an oven that's been pre heated to about 170C (that's 338F for anyone Stateside) so I don't know if they'd turn out if you made them in a campfire - might be worth trying out.
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Post by the light works on Aug 10, 2013 20:06:30 GMT
It has to be said at least once in the course of the thread:
"do you make them out of real rangers?"
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Post by Lex Of Sydney Australia on Aug 11, 2013 11:53:59 GMT
It has to be said at least once in the course of the thread: "do you make them out of real rangers?" & here’s the answer you just KNEW would be coming in response to asking that question: ***GROAN*** (That joke is worth of a face palm)
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Post by trakmec on Aug 13, 2013 15:00:59 GMT
Funny thing is that what a “Ranger cookie” was/is has changed over time. At one time in the 80’s there was a foil package with two chocolate covered cookies stuck on either side of a piece of wax paper that were often called ranger cookies. Interesting note, you usually had to eat them off of the paper because for some reason they were virtually impossible to separate from it. Now what I knew as ranger pudding and Ranger cookies were pretty much the same recipe with two small exceptions, the amount of water added, and patience. It went as follows. All items come from the standard MRE 1 pkg: coco beverage powder 1 pkg: sugar, or more to taste 1 pkg: creamer 1 pkg: instant coffee (if preferred) Water
For pudding; pour all dry ingredients into the coco beverage powder package. Keep adding water and mixing with spoon until you get a pudding like concoction.
For cookie; add only one MRE spoon full of water to the dry ingredients and keep mixing, it takes awhile. It will eventually form thick dough that will pull all of the dry ingredients off of the foil in the coco beverage powder package. At that point mash flat and remove from foil package to eat. Please keep in mind that the early MRE’s had no heat source other than a book of matches in em! That and most field units were not allowed to go around starting fires in their training areas, so most of the early recipes were for cold food. The idea of burning the box to “bake” the cookie must have come about later. Thought I have to admit I’ve never seen it done that way.
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Post by WhutScreenName on Aug 13, 2013 15:23:46 GMT
I had never heard of the cookie before, but have had Ranger Pudding on many occasions. It was, often times, better than the 'dessert' that actually came with the MRE.
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Post by User Unavailable on Aug 13, 2013 16:54:39 GMT
I never saw any wax paper between the cookies Trakmech mentioned. They were just two chocolate covered cookies stuck together, bottoms first. We called them Gorilla Cookies, because only a gorilla would "maybe" have the strength to pull them apart.
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Post by trakmec on Aug 14, 2013 13:35:32 GMT
Hello Former! Glad to see you alive and well. As I said what was called a Ranger cookie seems to have changed over time. I do remember the two in the MRE being called Gorilla cookies, but in some places they were called Ranger cookies. The papers removal was a later menu version, I’m thinking 89-91? I am certain it was because just as you couldn’t pull them apart, you also couldn’t pull them off the paper.
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Post by User Unavailable on Aug 14, 2013 23:23:54 GMT
Hello Former! Glad to see you alive and well. As I said what was called a Ranger cookie seems to have changed over time. I do remember the two in the MRE being called Gorilla cookies, but in some places they were called Ranger cookies. The papers removal was a later menu version, I’m thinking 89-91? I am certain it was because just as you couldn’t pull them apart, you also couldn’t pull them off the paper. Here you go man, Everything you ever wanted to know about MRE menus and more! It's broken down by year, all the way back to the beginning. Just follow the links on the side. (I think my link actually links to 1987 menus, as that was the year I was looking at when I bookmarked the page. Enjoy!
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