Tabasco Bottles Make A Glorious Return To The MRE
Everyone knows Tabasco is the best part of an MRE
The Army’s Combat Feeding Division brought back the beloved Tabasco bottle.
Tabasco’s inclusion in military rations unofficially dates back to 1966
Walter McIlhenny, a Marine and grandson of the hot sauce mogul Edmund McIlhenny, tapped into the military market with a C-ration cookbook called ‘No food is too good for the man up front.’
The little cookbook came with a 2-ounce Tabasco bottle, clothed in waterproof camouflage packaging, making it the perfect care package gift for soldiers in Vietnam.
“The cookbook often called for ingredients we did not have, but the bottle of Tabasco sauce was always ready to aid any crappy 1968 C-ration dish,” said Chris Woelk, who served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, according to the National Museum of American History.
For the last decade, there has been a void in the meals, and our hearts. In 2011, the U.S. military did away with the infamous tiny Tabasco bottles, which served as much as a novelty as a flavor force multiplier, in favor of ketchup-style packets.
In 2019, the division found that the pouch packaging material that was used for the hot sauce was no longer available for purchase, Julie Smith, Senior Food Technologist with the Combat Feeding Division told Military Times.
“No other commercially available pouch materials have been able to contain the hot sauce without pitting and delamination of the pouch material,” Smith said. “As a result, a decision was made to revert back to the bottled hot sauce.”
Even though the bottle cost is higher, the enjoyment troops get from the compact spice containers is worth the premium.
In 1990, the military made the decision to add the fan-favorite 1/8-ounce Tabasco bottles to MREs until they were retired in favor of the packets in 2011.
“Your product has always been in demand by troops in the field,” wrote legendary Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf in a 1991 letter to the McIlhennycompany. “I have enjoyed spicing up my own rations with your pepper sauce for many years.”
Tabasco proved essential for troops on long deployments overseas, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, helping them cope with intolerable rations — and, in turn, boosting morale.
“There’s no better way to enhance the taste bud feedback of military rations than with hot sauce,” wrote Army veteran Scott Gourley in 2014 on the armed forces’ penchant for the spicy stuff. “In fact, it has become a critical accompaniment to a broad range of military rations.”
“Tabasco has a very humanistic appeal with the warfighter,” Jeremy Whitsitt, who works with the DOD Combat Feeding Program at Natick Research Development Center told Epicurious. “The one comment we always get is, whatever you change or take out, don't ever take out our Tabasco sauce.”
Troops can expect to see start seeing the bottles in their MREs any day now, as they began being added in 2019.