The thought of trying to serve hot meals in the field is absurd, whether the source of heat is sterno cans, the "flameless ration heaters," or a mobile kitchen, is an absurd waste of time and money. The whole thing can be traced to the bizarre superstition that hot meals are inherently better than cold ones. It just isn't so.
The military, just about every school system in the country, and those airlines which still serve in-flight meals could save a bunch of $$$ AND dish up better food if they'd get over their "hot meal" obsession.
Gotta disagree w/SnNC- brother, hot food is mighty good when it' mighty cold.
My point was we spent so much time making sure our cooks were getting hot chow to us when we could have been learnin' them to fight good.
some of y'all left out the pound cake can w/a lil' bit of sand and MoGas. Most excellent stove. Course if you were heating up spaghettie/noodles it might heat up from the bottom, and thrust the whole congealed mass out of the can and into the dirt. If you were hungry enough you'd stuff it back in and eat it anyway. *grin*
There are a limited number of foods that taste good cold. Eating those same foods constantly gets monotonous in the extreme.
Hot food is a break, a psychological boost for deployed soldiers. It's maybe the ONE thing that reminds you of the "real world" that you can maintain with any predictability.
The two things soldiers crave after extended field time are decent food, and a hot shower - the shower can be tough, but if you can get even one hot meal a day it beats eating your fold cold at every single meal.
For me , the flameless ration heaters made a huge difference in the palatability of just about every MRE - esp in cold weather- would you prefer your spaghetti and meatballs hot, or cold, congealed and lumpy?