These culinary daredevils, some with YouTube followings in the millions, savor everything from World War II chocolate bars and beef from the Second Boer War, to crackers from the Civil War, according to a report on this quirky hobby in the Wall Street Journal . Missouri's Nathan Abernathy is one of those brave samplers, recently cracking open a 1965 US military meal from the Vietnam War, at which point he found himself dodging a minor explosion of a tin of peaches and braving coffee creamer that had turned "hard as steel." Some even find modern MREs—meals, ready to eat—practical for camping or lunch on the go, and other items in old-time military kits can prove useful without posing the same food-poisoning risks as the victuals: One guy took a drag a few years back from a World War II-era cigarette, declaring it a "strong smoke."
Author: Jenn Gidman with Newser.AI
Published at: 2025-09-28 21:06:00
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