Why Hot Sauce Belongs in Every British Army Ration Pack

There are few things more capable of testing a soldier’s morale than a British Army ration pack. You’ve been out in the field for days/weeks. You’re cold, wet, tired, covered in mud and questioning every life decision that brought you to this particular patch of woodland. Then comes the moment you’ve been waiting for: scran time.

You open the ration pack, find your main meal and stare at it. It stares back.

 You heat it up, take a bite and suddenly realise that what you’re eating may technically be food, but calling it “culinary excellence” would probably be stretching the truth a little too far. This is where the humble bottle of hot sauce comes into its own.

Because sometimes you don’t need a gourmet meal. You just need something that makes the meal taste like somebody actually cared.

The missing piece of military equipment

The British military has started to issue some impressive kit over the years. Weapons, radios, night vision, bergens, waterproofs and enough webbing to make you wonder how one person can possibly carry that much stuff.

But hot sauce?

Apparently, that’s where we draw the line.

And that seems like a strange decision when you consider just how much difference a decent hot sauce can make to a meal. A little chilli, acidity and flavour can turn something that was previously being eaten purely because you were hungry into something that is quite enjoyable.

 The Americans might have something right

And I'm not talking about the Ally MRE cooker, that's a different story altogether. 

Now, before anyone starts questioning our British credentials, we have to give credit where credit is due. The Americans have long understood the importance of having a little bit of heat available in the field.Their MREs have famously included small bottles of Tabasco sauce with certain meals. Yes, you read that correctly. While a British soldier might be sitting in the rain staring suspiciously at the contents of a rat pack, an American soldier can pull out a little bottle of Tabasco and give his dinner a much-needed tactical upgrade.

Someone in the American military supply chain apparently looked at an MRE and thought, “You know what this needs? Chilli.”

Genius.

Of course, we would never suggest that American military food is better than British military food. We’re British. We have standards.

We simply accept that our food is occasionally… character building.

And if the Americans can recognise that a little bottle of hot sauce can improve morale, perhaps it’s time we followed their lead.

The ultimate ration-pack upgrade

Imagine the perfect British field ration. You’ve got your main meal, biscuits brown, chocolate, a brew (decent coffee would also be a winner) and whatever other carefully selected components have made it into your pack. Then, tucked away alongside everything else, there’s a bottle of Cleared Hot. Suddenly, things don’t seem quite so bleak.

 A few drops can transform that familiar question of “What the hell is this?” into “Actually, this isn’t bad.”

And that is the beauty of a good hot sauce. It isn’t simply about making your food painfully hot and spending the next ten minutes wondering whether your tongue has actually left your body. The best sauces are about flavour first and heat second.

They can bring sweetness, acidity, smokiness and chilli to a meal that might otherwise be about as exciting as filling in an MOD expenses form.

For anyone who has served, there’s also something nostalgic about ration-pack food. Most veterans will have a story about them. The meal they loved. The meal they traded away. The one that somehow appeared in their ration pack every time they opened one. Or the mysterious brown substance that nobody could quite identify but everyone seemed willing to eat when they were hungry enough.

And, of course, there was always the bloke who had somehow managed to bring something extra that everyone else wanted.

A decent stash of hot sauce would have made that fella even more popular.

So, should British ration packs contain hot sauce?

Absolutely.

If the Americans can put Tabasco in an MRE, surely adding a little bottle of British-made hot sauce to a British ration pack isn’t exactly a radical military innovation.

We’re not asking for a five-course dinner. We’re not asking for silver service in the back of a Warrior. We’re simply asking for something that makes a standard Rat Pack half decent.

Because when you’re cold, wet, hanging out and miles from home, small things matter. A hot brew matters. A decent bit of chocolate matters. A good laugh with the lads matters. Making an MRE bomb really matters.

And sometimes, a little bottle of something with enough fire to wake up your boil in the bag ration pack matters too.

That’s exactly why we think Cleared Hot belongs in every British Army ration pack.

Not because every meal needs to be painfully hot. Because every meal deserves a bit of flavour.

From the ration pack to the BBQ, from the campsite to the kitchen, Cleared Hot is made for people who like their food with a little more attitude.

 If any of the MOD procurement team are reading this feel free to give us a shout and we can talk about slipping a bottle of the good stuff in future rat packs.