Ration



A field ration, or combat ration, is a canned or pre-packaged meal, easily prepared and eaten, transported by military troops on the battlefield. They are distinguished from regular military rations by virtue of being designed for minimal preparation in the field, using canned, pre-cooked or freeze-dried foods, powdered beverage mixes and concentrated food bars, as well as for long shelf life.

Overview
During World War II, food that was packed in jars and cans, dried, or condensed was the norm. Canned food was invented in 1804 when Napoleon offered prize money to anyone who could devise a new way to preserve food for military use.

With the addition of combat stress platoons to military forces in the new millennium, the mental health of soldiers started to come into question. As a result, rations began including food that actually appealed to soldiers. The types of rations diversified in flavor markedly improved thanks to the use of retort pouches, vacuum-packing, and freeze-drying. Multinational forces of the 21st century have rations that vary by nation so that their soldiers can enjoy food that reminds them of home.

Russian rations
During the 1960s, Russian rations were apparently well known in the West as being very bad tasting. It was mostly made of beef and full of fat and oil (50%). The beef was similar to "schmalzfleisch" from German rations. It was suggested that they be heated with an oven or microwave. They saw use by Soviet forces in both Tselinoyarsk and the San Hieronymo Peninsula, the latter of which also came in two sizes.

Militaires Sans Frontieres rations
Although rations made by the time of the Peace Walker Incident did a moderately better job in promoting stamina recovery, sometimes also being cooked by high-class chefs, they nonetheless still had a mediocre taste short of grilling them, with some soldiers refusing to eat them while they were cold, regardless of taste.

Besides making traditional rations, the Militaires Sans Frontieres also developed specialized rations containing curry, preserved in specially manufactured retort pouches, and also had variants with more spices, and others that claimed to include tastes "beyond their time." During a conversation with Kazuhira Miller, MSF commander Big Boss once joked about creating MSF-brand rations, which Miller briefly considered to be a good idea. On one occasion, an MSF recruit enquired whether their rations included tea and scones.

Outer Heaven and Zanzibarland rations
Rations made since the Outer Heaven Uprising in 1995 had a noticeably improved taste and do a better job of promoting stamina recovery.

In the late 1990s, the Zanzibar Land military utilized various rations in the field:
 * B1 Unit, containing beef, pork, ham and egg paste, tuna fish, chocolate, and crackers.
 * B2 Unit, containing tomato-boiled peas and meatball mix, potato-boiled peas and German sausage mix, potato-boiled beef and sauce-boiled diced beef.
 * B3 Unit, containing sauce-boiled sliced hams, chicken, and turkey, spaghetti with beef, turkey blocks, cheese and coffee.

United States rations
U.S. rations were developed as a result of concentrated research within the United States Military's Cooking Laboratory, via a combination of meticulous attention towards balanced nutrition and calories. They were also freeze-dried via special methods developed by NROC, thus making them easy to carry and last for weeks at a time.

Roy Campbell and Rosemary once attended a United Nations swap meet that dealt with rations. According to Campbell, the judges claimed that French rations tasted the best, with Italian rations and Japanese rations coming in runner up. However, all the judges agreed that the worst tasting rations were American rations.

Trivia

 * According to Cécile Cosima Caminades, French rations tasted the best because they contained sweets.

Use in gameplay
The Ration is a recovery item that appears in every game in the Metal Gear series. In most games, it restores a large amount of health when eaten. If the Ration is selected as the equipped item, the player will automatically use it if their health is depleted, although instant-kill scenarios (e.g. getting stepped on by Metal Gear REX) will still be fatal.

Metal Gear 2 is the only game that includes specific types of ration containers, as a certain type is needed to complete several puzzles. The chocolate in B1 units can be used to neutralize sulfuric acid puddles making them safe to walk over. Likewise, the potato-boiled meals in B2 units are used to lure a carrier pigeon down in order to retrieve Kio Marv's SOS note.

In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Metal Gear Solid, rations could be frozen due to cold environments, such as the Zanzibar Building's freezer and the Shadow Moses underground warehouse. Frozen rations are inedible. These could be warmed up by equipping them for prolonged periods of time.

The Russian Ration appears in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which functions as a moderately filling food item. The Calorie Mate is a similar but much more filling foodstuff as Naked Snake disliked the taste of Russian rations. It is also implied that Russian rations were flat out unappealing, as EVA expresses distaste towards them if fed them, and the attack dogs also ignore them after smelling them. In addition, Russian rations were also given a reputation within the West as being very bad tasting. Neither the Ration nor the Calorie Mate count towards the various naturally-occurring food and medicinal items that Snake needs to collect in order to unlock the EZ Gun. In Snake Eater, the Life Medicine has the healing function that the Ration had in previous games.

Rations serve a similar role in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, where they serve only as a way to replenish the character's stamina. Also, it includes two kinds of rations: Large and Small. Its function to heal other characters is instead done by Medical Kits.

Rations returned to their role of health replenishment in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. In the latter, recovering stamina (referred to as Psyche) is instead performed with Mate Tea. During certain Extra Ops, the player can also cook the rations and can procure Rare, Well-done, or Burnt Rations depending on how long the player cooks them. If the player ends up roasting a Rare Ration, Kazuhira Miller will jokingly say, "don't quit your day job."

In every game from Metal Gear to Sons of Liberty, the Ration has a round shape (in Metal Gear Solid and Portable Ops, the Ration appears square shaped during normal gameplay, while the item window shows it to be round in shape). In Guns of the Patriots, the Ration is square shaped. In Metal Gear, the in-game sprite for the Ration is round, but its artwork the MSX2 user's manual depicts it as being almost rectangular with curved edges, a shape also shared by those in Peace Walker. In the "Demo-Ops" version of Peace Walker, the rations were depicted as being circular on the item menu, indicating that the developers originally intended to have the rations be circular instead of rounded rectangles seen in the final version. The in-game model of the Ration in "Demo-Ops", however, was identical to its in-game model in the final version, albeit slightly darker brown.

Sound Rations
On February 9, 2009, Konami released six collectable "Sound Rations" available from dispensing machines around Japan. Styled to match the appearance of the in-game ration, each different Sound Ration emitting a different sound with the press of a button.

In-game description
"Rations Replenishes LIFE gauge."

- Rations description in Metal Gear

"Restores a small amount of Stamina."

- Ration(S) description inMetal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

"Restores a large amount of Stamina."

- Ration(L) description in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

"Meal, Ready-to-Eat. Recovers LIFE. Select from Equipment window and press [R> to use. Automatically used if LIFE reaches zero when equipped."

- Ration item description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"Undercooked Meal, Ready-to-Eat. An already unappetizing creation made worse by being undercooked. Recovers only a small amount of LIFE."

- Rare Ration item description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"Well-done Meal, Ready-to-Eat. Makes a revoting ration surprisingly delicious. Recovers more LIFE than normal, and also recovers PSYCHE."

- Well-done Ration item description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"Burnt Meal, Ready-to-Eat. The only thing worse than a ration is a burnt ration. Eating it won't recover much LIFE."

- Burnt Ration item description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker