The Taste Test: Unpacking the Ukrainian Ration

As I carefully opened the package containing the Ukrainian ration, I was immediately struck by its aroma. The scent was reminiscent of bologna or potted meat, with a strong emphasis on oiliness. It was almost overpowering, but I pressed on, eager to taste what this meal had to offer.

The first item I encountered was what appeared to be a solid layer of melted fat. As I picked it up, I realized that it was actually a piece of stewed meat, with tender pieces of beef and soft, anxious-looking bits of connective tissue. It looked like something that would be hearty enough to keep you going in cold weather, but it also had a certain delicacy to it.

I took a bite, and the flavors exploded on my tongue. The seasoning was simple, yet effective, with a good amount of salt and a depth of flavor that spoke to the richness of the meat. It was clear that this ration was designed to be filling and satisfying, with no skimping on the ingredients.

Next up was what looked like a soup, although it had a thick, stew-like consistency. I poured some of it into a bowl, and was immediately struck by its heat. It was almost scalding, but as soon as I added some purified water to cool it down, it transformed into something much more palatable.

The aroma of the soup wafted up from the bowl, enticing me with its rich, beefy scent. And when I took a taste, I was not disappointed. The flavors were complex and nuanced, with notes of tomato and potato that added depth to an already satisfying broth.

Finally, I turned my attention to the last item in the package: what appeared to be a potted meat. However, as I opened it up, I realized that it was actually a compact, rectangular bar made from compressed fruit leather. It had a strange texture, but one that was strangely appealing.

I took a bite, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The flavors were intense and fruity, with a sweetness that was tempered only slightly by the presence of nuts and other textures. It was like nothing I'd ever tasted before, and yet it felt oddly familiar.

As I continued to explore the Ukrainian ration, I couldn't help but think about the role of food in times of war or scarcity. The fact that this meal was designed to be compact and filling made sense, given its origins as a soldier's rations. But it also spoke to a deeper human need: the desire for sustenance and nourishment, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Eventually, I turned my attention to making some tea using the ration's included tea bag. The result was a surprisingly good cup, with a rich, full-bodied flavor that was perfectly balanced by the addition of sugar. It was a small pleasure, but one that helped to round out an otherwise hearty and satisfying meal.

In the end, I was struck by the Ukrainian ration's ability to deliver on its promise: it was a solid, filling meal that would keep you going in even the toughest of circumstances. And while it may not have been the most exciting thing I'd ever tasted, it was definitely one of the most memorable – and perhaps the most satisfying.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello my beautiful lovelies it's emmy welcome back to another military ration taste test today i'm going to be tasting this and this is a ukrainian ration and it was very kindly sent to me by katie katie thank you so much for sending this to me she found this and she immediately thought of me so thank you katie so much for sending it to me so this is pretty heavy and based on its size i'm going to presume it is a 24-hour ration so you can go to google translate and i at first thought this was a russian ration but when i tried translating it in russian it didn't work and then i did ukraine and this is what happened some of the stuff does appear in to translate so defense ration option two i think if you have questions you can call this number so federation moscow region and canned food canned food looks like there's a fruit in here this was completed in 2016 but it is good till 2018. so just typical of google translate it sort of works we're able to get an idea of what some of this is i believe based just on the packaging that this is probably a civilian ukrainian ration i'm not sure mre experts do let me know in the comments what you know about this ration and if you like these military ration taste tests be sure to check out the playlist i've eaten many many many rations including many domestic us rations and international ones absolutely fascinating so be sure to check those ones out there's a little handle here which is nice makes it easy to carry but there isn't any kind of way to open it so vacuum sealed very tightly all right very nicely packaged so it looks like there's some fuel here some sort of directions this looks like it's going to be sugar smarbillon what is that smar not sure what that is i think that's some sort of beverage this looks like some kind of fig bar plum bar fruit couple three spoons i've never had that many spoons in a ration before what's this mac it says it's mac i don't know that is but maybe pepper ooh matches and strikers these are really nice nice and wrapped so they're waterproof uh this is another oh this is gonna be salt i think yes here's some hardtack crackers very similar to the crackers that i had in my russian irp and my kha'zix stock ration so four packets of those and three of these now what's this faces oh everyday hand canopy faces so i think these are wet wipes yes disinfectant oh surface cutlery so maybe one is for cutlery and one is for your face these are wet naps this looks like it's some beverage coffee maybe instant coffee coffee it's not able to read that one from that's all i get some sort of potted something or other nope not able to give that one either let's do this one oil looks like it might be some kind of tea yes um this looks like it might be some apple jam nubbin oh here are the main entrees really big packages here don't know can't read these ones and this one looks like it's a vegetable stew horny council two water purifying tablets a napkin and that's it that's the end of the box so there's a lot a lot of food here so i'm gonna heat one of the rations using the stove provided and the other two i'm just gonna place in boiling water to warm them up so there are three tablets presumably one for each meal it shows you right here how to assemble the stove oh it smells bad kind of fishy and yeah it smells terrible so these go up and then these go down place the fuel middle i like how these are packaged nice and individually the striker is located here look at that match lights very nicely look at that beautiful plenty of fuel to get my fuel started thank you so the fuel is finally lit i'm going to place this right on top like that i'm going to let this cook outside next let's see what's inside here so the white one has this one and the green one has this one they look identical the white one smells smells a lot like a baby wipe this one actually smells pretty similar yeah i'm gonna say these are the same same material smell pretty similar kind of like a very lightly scented baby wipe and yeah i'm just gonna presume that they are the same okay not really sure what this is but it looks like it might be some kind of spread maybe it's a meat spread oh i think that might be some kind of cheese oh it smells a little bit smoky a little oily and let's have it with a cracker there are eight in one package they're pretty firm oh actually they're not so firm let's give them a taste they taste like a cross between a saltine and a biscuit they're just a tiny bit sweet but just kind of that very neutral flowery flavor a little bit of salt in there they're not as hard as some crackers that i've had i remember my german ein mind packing those crackers were very very hard but i understand just for practicality these crackers need to be sturdy so that soldiers in combat don't end up with a pile of just dust so let's try it with what i think is cheese oh yeah it seems very spreadable hmm it's kind of like cheese but has a little bit of like a whiny flavor to it kind of similar to the cheese that you get in those craft handy snacks kind of like that not so plasticky very spreadable well and i believe this is going to be some sort of apple spread based just on the illustration in my russian irp i mistakenly made a beverage out of what was supposed to be the apple jam and it was actually delicious i won't do that today although i do recommend it but let's see if we can translate this nope it's not able to read the script oh nubbing samar so i think some are sugar because when i scanned these packages it said samar and it feels like sugar so this is some sort of puree and sugar so i'm going to say it's apple jam and it looks like a fruit puree and that's just a lovely jam here's a little bit appley fruity a little bit tangy delicious great on our cracker actually i'm used to having jam on toast but it's actually quite nice on a cracker nice little crunchy bit and nice and fruity and sweet jam and after you make jam you really come to appreciate jam and all the effort that goes into jam making i love jam i made strawberry freezer jam recently so good we've already eaten two jars of it i made a total of like six jars we've already eaten like a third of it so good while i'm at the beginning of this mre i'm going to go ahead and purify some water i've got a large vessel water here and they've given me two tablets so i'll put one of them in there i'm curious to see if this is iodine or chlorine iodine usually in my experience doesn't have much of a flavor while chlorine of course is like pool water can't tell from the smell this one's crumbled so i'll just drop that into there give that a little stir usually you have to let these sit for a little while so i'll have a sip of that at the very end next let's make some coffee this looks like it's going to be just freeze-dried coffee and it is just like you would find in any ration and i'm going to add this nice big crystals of granulated sugar i actually usually drink my coffee black but since i had the sugar and we want to test it i'm adding it to my coffee cheers nice and burnt it tastes like camping i like it so let's see what's in this other packet here okay we know it's from somewhere i guess that's good let's go ahead and open it oof got a little bit in my eye great this looks like some kind of puree it smells like spaghettios it's very very smooth kind of tastes like pureed spaghettios it has a very strong tinned can flavor slightly metallic and very tomatoey although it's not as sweet it's tangy tomatoey very smooth it's a bit like baby food actually but let's have it on a cracker because crackers always make it better having it with the cracker makes it seem more like a dip like you're having a very thick soup dip in crackers this one's not my favorite but it's okay i think our entrees are thoroughly heated up let me go grab them so my fuel tablet actually went out so i went ahead and added it to the boiling water to make sure that all of these would be thoroughly hot the label's coming off on that one let's try this one first cut our owl i don't think this is owl there's not a lot of meat on owl but that was an interesting translation wasn't it so maybe it's some sort of chicken or poultry oh it is meat okay this looks very similar to something that i had in my wow in my russian ration and it was a grain i believe it was kasha that was mixed with meat and that's what this looks like as well it smells a bit like bologna or potted meat and it's oily very very oily itadakimasu that's not bad very well seasoned nicely salted the grains are soft kind of similar to rice this actually i think is rice but it's not mushy the meat in here is a little bit like corned beef and it's very rich and fatty kind of buttery almost and it tastes like corned beef hash in a lot of ways it's pretty good this one feels very liquidy i think this is a soup contempt you clear yep not getting a translation on this one either it's very hot yes it is ooh it's actually like a stew look at this oh my goodness so what i thought was just soup also contains a solid layer of melted fat this is definitely soldier food cold weather food high in calories this looks like it's some stewed meat smells actually really good it looks like beef mmm that is very good very very very tender pieces of beef i think with some very soft anxious pieces in there i think that's fat and a little bit of connective tissue delicious very simply seasoned a good amount of salt but rich sticks your ribs hearty delicious this one looks like it might contain the vegetables horny oh look at that some carrots not sure what that is smells very similar to that puree dish very tomatoey this is very oily ah it's potato these sticks are sticks of potato very soft well cooked oily and tastes like tomato soup and let's see what's in the last little package here bottom oil tin i'm thinking this is going to be some sort of potted meat if it's anything like the russian ration that i had and indeed so this looks like a pate of some sort but it looks more browner in color than i expected usually these potted meats are kind of pink it smells a little bit livery let's give that a go that's not bad it's a little bit sweet i'm a little livery a little bit irony i like that flavor very very smooth texture spreads easily and goes great the cracker fruit couple fruit cane health for active life wow very dark in color and looks actually kind of similar to say a clif bar both in color and kind of density too this looks a little rubbery smells like a fruit leather though all right let's give that a go that's actually really good i like that more than say some clif bars it's not sacrini sweet it tastes just like fruit and it has some texture to it it has some chew to it a little bit of nuts and the all-around flavor it's kind of like raisins just mushed up raisins all kind of compressed into a bar but it tastes very naturally sweetened and naturally flavored it doesn't taste like fake sugars it doesn't have some weird kind of chewy texture to it it just tastes like a really thick kind of fruit leather i like that let's make a cup of tea and inside your standard tea bag add some hot water to that and while that's steeping i will open this package so let's go ahead and taste our purified water hmm i think that might have been iodine tablets i don't taste any chlorine just tastes like water okay so to that let's make some of our sports drink so we'll put the sports drink powder in there and add some purified water the crystals are pretty big but they're dissolving pretty readily it looks a lot like a lemonade cheers i'm not sure if that's a sports drink it tastes a lot like kool-aid although it does have some viscosity to it so maybe there are some electrolytes but very sweet very very very sweet with a slight lemony flavor this ration contains no chocolate or no candies i kind of like that although for morale a little bit of candy i think is always deserved but i think you could have some of that jam on a cracker or have that fruit bar as dessert but since i've already ate them it looks like it's just tea for me i also normally don't have my tea sweetened so let's have some sugar in it so we'll treat and that's just a good cup of black tea delicious alrighty so there you have it there was my first taste of a ukrainian ration an all-around very hearty stick to your ribs kind of meal all the basic components are there very compact relatively big thanks to katie for sending this to me thank you guys so much for watching i hope you guys enjoyed that one i hope you guys learned something check out the other military rations that i've tasted in the playlist up above and yeah subscribe if not subbed already like this video share it with your friends because it really helps me out follow me on social media and i shall see you in the next one toodaloo take care bye youhello my beautiful lovelies it's emmy welcome back to another military ration taste test today i'm going to be tasting this and this is a ukrainian ration and it was very kindly sent to me by katie katie thank you so much for sending this to me she found this and she immediately thought of me so thank you katie so much for sending it to me so this is pretty heavy and based on its size i'm going to presume it is a 24-hour ration so you can go to google translate and i at first thought this was a russian ration but when i tried translating it in russian it didn't work and then i did ukraine and this is what happened some of the stuff does appear in to translate so defense ration option two i think if you have questions you can call this number so federation moscow region and canned food canned food looks like there's a fruit in here this was completed in 2016 but it is good till 2018. so just typical of google translate it sort of works we're able to get an idea of what some of this is i believe based just on the packaging that this is probably a civilian ukrainian ration i'm not sure mre experts do let me know in the comments what you know about this ration and if you like these military ration taste tests be sure to check out the playlist i've eaten many many many rations including many domestic us rations and international ones absolutely fascinating so be sure to check those ones out there's a little handle here which is nice makes it easy to carry but there isn't any kind of way to open it so vacuum sealed very tightly all right very nicely packaged so it looks like there's some fuel here some sort of directions this looks like it's going to be sugar smarbillon what is that smar not sure what that is i think that's some sort of beverage this looks like some kind of fig bar plum bar fruit couple three spoons i've never had that many spoons in a ration before what's this mac it says it's mac i don't know that is but maybe pepper ooh matches and strikers these are really nice nice and wrapped so they're waterproof uh this is another oh this is gonna be salt i think yes here's some hardtack crackers very similar to the crackers that i had in my russian irp and my kha'zix stock ration so four packets of those and three of these now what's this faces oh everyday hand canopy faces so i think these are wet wipes yes disinfectant oh surface cutlery so maybe one is for cutlery and one is for your face these are wet naps this looks like it's some beverage coffee maybe instant coffee coffee it's not able to read that one from that's all i get some sort of potted something or other nope not able to give that one either let's do this one oil looks like it might be some kind of tea yes um this looks like it might be some apple jam nubbin oh here are the main entrees really big packages here don't know can't read these ones and this one looks like it's a vegetable stew horny council two water purifying tablets a napkin and that's it that's the end of the box so there's a lot a lot of food here so i'm gonna heat one of the rations using the stove provided and the other two i'm just gonna place in boiling water to warm them up so there are three tablets presumably one for each meal it shows you right here how to assemble the stove oh it smells bad kind of fishy and yeah it smells terrible so these go up and then these go down place the fuel middle i like how these are packaged nice and individually the striker is located here look at that match lights very nicely look at that beautiful plenty of fuel to get my fuel started thank you so the fuel is finally lit i'm going to place this right on top like that i'm going to let this cook outside next let's see what's inside here so the white one has this one and the green one has this one they look identical the white one smells smells a lot like a baby wipe this one actually smells pretty similar yeah i'm gonna say these are the same same material smell pretty similar kind of like a very lightly scented baby wipe and yeah i'm just gonna presume that they are the same okay not really sure what this is but it looks like it might be some kind of spread maybe it's a meat spread oh i think that might be some kind of cheese oh it smells a little bit smoky a little oily and let's have it with a cracker there are eight in one package they're pretty firm oh actually they're not so firm let's give them a taste they taste like a cross between a saltine and a biscuit they're just a tiny bit sweet but just kind of that very neutral flowery flavor a little bit of salt in there they're not as hard as some crackers that i've had i remember my german ein mind packing those crackers were very very hard but i understand just for practicality these crackers need to be sturdy so that soldiers in combat don't end up with a pile of just dust so let's try it with what i think is cheese oh yeah it seems very spreadable hmm it's kind of like cheese but has a little bit of like a whiny flavor to it kind of similar to the cheese that you get in those craft handy snacks kind of like that not so plasticky very spreadable well and i believe this is going to be some sort of apple spread based just on the illustration in my russian irp i mistakenly made a beverage out of what was supposed to be the apple jam and it was actually delicious i won't do that today although i do recommend it but let's see if we can translate this nope it's not able to read the script oh nubbing samar so i think some are sugar because when i scanned these packages it said samar and it feels like sugar so this is some sort of puree and sugar so i'm going to say it's apple jam and it looks like a fruit puree and that's just a lovely jam here's a little bit appley fruity a little bit tangy delicious great on our cracker actually i'm used to having jam on toast but it's actually quite nice on a cracker nice little crunchy bit and nice and fruity and sweet jam and after you make jam you really come to appreciate jam and all the effort that goes into jam making i love jam i made strawberry freezer jam recently so good we've already eaten two jars of it i made a total of like six jars we've already eaten like a third of it so good while i'm at the beginning of this mre i'm going to go ahead and purify some water i've got a large vessel water here and they've given me two tablets so i'll put one of them in there i'm curious to see if this is iodine or chlorine iodine usually in my experience doesn't have much of a flavor while chlorine of course is like pool water can't tell from the smell this one's crumbled so i'll just drop that into there give that a little stir usually you have to let these sit for a little while so i'll have a sip of that at the very end next let's make some coffee this looks like it's going to be just freeze-dried coffee and it is just like you would find in any ration and i'm going to add this nice big crystals of granulated sugar i actually usually drink my coffee black but since i had the sugar and we want to test it i'm adding it to my coffee cheers nice and burnt it tastes like camping i like it so let's see what's in this other packet here okay we know it's from somewhere i guess that's good let's go ahead and open it oof got a little bit in my eye great this looks like some kind of puree it smells like spaghettios it's very very smooth kind of tastes like pureed spaghettios it has a very strong tinned can flavor slightly metallic and very tomatoey although it's not as sweet it's tangy tomatoey very smooth it's a bit like baby food actually but let's have it on a cracker because crackers always make it better having it with the cracker makes it seem more like a dip like you're having a very thick soup dip in crackers this one's not my favorite but it's okay i think our entrees are thoroughly heated up let me go grab them so my fuel tablet actually went out so i went ahead and added it to the boiling water to make sure that all of these would be thoroughly hot the label's coming off on that one let's try this one first cut our owl i don't think this is owl there's not a lot of meat on owl but that was an interesting translation wasn't it so maybe it's some sort of chicken or poultry oh it is meat okay this looks very similar to something that i had in my wow in my russian ration and it was a grain i believe it was kasha that was mixed with meat and that's what this looks like as well it smells a bit like bologna or potted meat and it's oily very very oily itadakimasu that's not bad very well seasoned nicely salted the grains are soft kind of similar to rice this actually i think is rice but it's not mushy the meat in here is a little bit like corned beef and it's very rich and fatty kind of buttery almost and it tastes like corned beef hash in a lot of ways it's pretty good this one feels very liquidy i think this is a soup contempt you clear yep not getting a translation on this one either it's very hot yes it is ooh it's actually like a stew look at this oh my goodness so what i thought was just soup also contains a solid layer of melted fat this is definitely soldier food cold weather food high in calories this looks like it's some stewed meat smells actually really good it looks like beef mmm that is very good very very very tender pieces of beef i think with some very soft anxious pieces in there i think that's fat and a little bit of connective tissue delicious very simply seasoned a good amount of salt but rich sticks your ribs hearty delicious this one looks like it might contain the vegetables horny oh look at that some carrots not sure what that is smells very similar to that puree dish very tomatoey this is very oily ah it's potato these sticks are sticks of potato very soft well cooked oily and tastes like tomato soup and let's see what's in the last little package here bottom oil tin i'm thinking this is going to be some sort of potted meat if it's anything like the russian ration that i had and indeed so this looks like a pate of some sort but it looks more browner in color than i expected usually these potted meats are kind of pink it smells a little bit livery let's give that a go that's not bad it's a little bit sweet i'm a little livery a little bit irony i like that flavor very very smooth texture spreads easily and goes great the cracker fruit couple fruit cane health for active life wow very dark in color and looks actually kind of similar to say a clif bar both in color and kind of density too this looks a little rubbery smells like a fruit leather though all right let's give that a go that's actually really good i like that more than say some clif bars it's not sacrini sweet it tastes just like fruit and it has some texture to it it has some chew to it a little bit of nuts and the all-around flavor it's kind of like raisins just mushed up raisins all kind of compressed into a bar but it tastes very naturally sweetened and naturally flavored it doesn't taste like fake sugars it doesn't have some weird kind of chewy texture to it it just tastes like a really thick kind of fruit leather i like that let's make a cup of tea and inside your standard tea bag add some hot water to that and while that's steeping i will open this package so let's go ahead and taste our purified water hmm i think that might have been iodine tablets i don't taste any chlorine just tastes like water okay so to that let's make some of our sports drink so we'll put the sports drink powder in there and add some purified water the crystals are pretty big but they're dissolving pretty readily it looks a lot like a lemonade cheers i'm not sure if that's a sports drink it tastes a lot like kool-aid although it does have some viscosity to it so maybe there are some electrolytes but very sweet very very very sweet with a slight lemony flavor this ration contains no chocolate or no candies i kind of like that although for morale a little bit of candy i think is always deserved but i think you could have some of that jam on a cracker or have that fruit bar as dessert but since i've already ate them it looks like it's just tea for me i also normally don't have my tea sweetened so let's have some sugar in it so we'll treat and that's just a good cup of black tea delicious alrighty so there you have it there was my first taste of a ukrainian ration an all-around very hearty stick to your ribs kind of meal all the basic components are there very compact relatively big thanks to katie for sending this to me thank you guys so much for watching i hope you guys enjoyed that one i hope you guys learned something check out the other military rations that i've tasted in the playlist up above and yeah subscribe if not subbed already like this video share it with your friends because it really helps me out follow me on social media and i shall see you in the next one toodaloo take care bye you\n"