What's in a ration pack? Essential British Army Training Tips

What I'm going to talk you through today is the ration pack. 24-hour ration pack. Inside here contains your breakfast, snacks for lunch and a main meal in the evening. We have these on operations, also on exercise. The importance of the rations is to keep your energies up so that you are ready for the task ahead. Also in here is a few drinks. As an army soldier it's important to keep hydrated so we can think clearly and operate at our maximum at all times. This is number 8 menu out of 20 different varieties. There is also vegetarian and halal. Each box contains different menus. What I'm going to do now is open up the box and we'll show you the contents of what's inside menu number 8. Here we have your fruit muesli with milk already added. All you need to do is add water. Here you have your tomato salad, tuna and light mayo. Your rice pudding which you can have after your main meal which is your beef bolognese. You've got your smooth peanut butter, some peanuts, some oat biscuits, some boiled sweets, sesame seeds. Here you have your brew kit, a fruit drink just mixed with water. Hot chocolate, a cocoa drink, another apple powder beverage just mixed with cold water. You also have your strawberry jam. Last but not least you have some hot sauce for those that like it hot. All of these can be eaten hot or cold if you have the time to get your burner out. Or you can eat it cold when you're on the move. To cook any of these meals what we need is one of these. A haximin cooker. What I'm going to go through now is how the haximin cooker works. The stove is metal which is reusable. Inside you have solid fuel which is enough to be able to cook your 24 hour rations. What I'm going to go through now is how to prepare a meal for cooking. What I'll need is a mess tin, some water and the meal that I'm going to cook which is the beef bolognese. What I'm going to go into now is showing you how to light the solid fuels. That's the solid fuel, the haximin. Like any good soldier you would make sure everything you're not using is put away. Especially the haximin blocks because they are highly flammable. The mattress itself, they are contained within your 24 hour pack. While you're waiting for your bolognese to cook what we normally do now is your personal admin. I.e. getting your weapon cleaned just to make sure that you're good to go when you need to go out on that task. Everything that comes in the pack is to boil in the bag so that if your down time gets cut short you can rip the pack out of the mess tin. Get rid of the water, put the pack in your pocket and have it at a later date. The bolognese is pretty much done. I'm just going to put that to one side. What I'm going to do now is make myself a brew using the water that I use to boil in the bag. Out of the ration box, my brew kit. I have two whiteners which is my milk, two sugars and a Nescafe. Also your spoon and that's my brew. As you can see the two tablets that I use is almost burnt out just by doing one meal. Now that I've made my brew, my meal is good to go to eat. Here we have our beef bolognese. It's hot, nutritious and that's hit the spot. Here's a quick introduction on how we cook in the field. Most important thing is every good soldier will take all his rubbish away with him. Cheers and it's better than you think.