I’m sure all of you have seen the Hormel Compleats meals. Most big box stores have a whole section dedicated to them. Shelf stable ready to eat meals with a year shelf life. In the past I had bought some because I liked the concept. Having ready to eat food during a disaster is great and the meal options looked much better than MRE’s. For the most part though I just stored them and didn’t really eat them. They don’t fit in my paleo way of eating, many have either grains or legumes and all have ingredient lists a mile long. I have always said I would eat shit before death though so that’s why I store them. Also I would prefer to give them out before good food. Now lets get down to the review.
Bacon Breakfast Scramble
I was at work one day when I saw these new breakfast scrambles. My mind is always searching for new items for prepping. I looked over the nutrition facts real quick and liked what I saw. The tray contains 350 calories, 25g fat, 11g Carbohydrates(1g of fiber in there) and 20g of protein. I really liked the macro nutrient balance in there with fat being the majority of calories. Glancing at the ingredients though what I expected, a huge list with unpronounceable words. The main ones being Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes and Cheese. So while these were not going to be everyday food I thought they would be good for a bug out or emergency food. Did I think wrong?
Let’s Eat
I was running a little late one morning I decided to eat one for review. I was a excited to try out something new. When trying new things I like to not add anything so I get a baseline. On fruits and veggies I always just eat a raw piece. Which in the case of green plantains made me tear up and almost puke. I get these tray out the microwave and sit down with my coffee to eat. As soon as it hit my mouth thought I knew things were going south. Calling this thing bland would be such an understatement. It was like they not only didn’t not have any flavor but that they were a taste black hole. Add on to their horrible taste the texture. It was like eating sand covered tofu. An abomination of mushy bad flavor. I think I managed to get one bite down and thought maybe if I mixed it up it would improve the taste. This is the mind of a reviewer, you have to be thorough. When the next bite though was just as bad I was done. I spit it back in the tray.
Any Help
I think you could probably doctor these up and make them edible with salt, Tabasco and more cheese. Basically masking the taste. Doing any of that though would negate the reason for buying these in the first place. Why buy a ready to eat meal if it is not suitable for human ingestion. I thought about eating, trying to, the second one I bought by adding to it. I’m still so revulsion from the first one though that I can’t bring myself to it. I’ll keep this one around and maybe during a disaster I’ll get hungry enough to eat it. The old saying goes that “Hunger is the best sauce”
Final Thoughts
I’ve heard from many that they appreciate that my reviews are honest. Some people in the blogesphere tend to only review things they like or say they do. I can understand if you only buy the very best things and research them intensively then maybe you won’t com across crap often. When I come across something crappy though I want to do my best to make sure no of you make the same mistake. If you buy a Hormel Compleats Bacon Breakfast Scramble it will be the worst $2 mistake in your life.
What’s the worst food you’ve ever eaten? Do you like the Compleats? Let me know in the comments!
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Ok, won’t be buying any of the Hormel breakfast.
Years ago, when I was young and had the stomach that could dissolve iron…..we would have Armour Corn Beef Hash when we camped. Usually cook up some eggs and this was the side…tasty and very filling. We loved it!
Last fall I opened a can from my preps, wanted to try it out before buying more. Gag, gag, had to spit that mess right out. It wasn’t even nice to look at, pale with lots of white stuff all thru it. The white is the potatoes……never met a tator that tasted like that…..at first I thought it was fat.
Guess if I was starving I could eat it……..no, no, I had rather eat bugs. I have several more cans and I wouldn’t even give it to the local food bank……just because you are poor is no reason to choke that crap down.
I remember eating that stuff years ago and think I have a can in my preps somewhere. Now I’m afraid to open it up.
I also tried one of these thinking they might be OK for a quick meal I can stash anywhere, and was also disgusted by it. The potatoes in my example were kinda dark looking, it was light on bacon, unexplainably greasy, and the eggs were not eggs, they were something else. I paid less than a dollar for one between the sale and a coupon. You are better off stashing a generic can of beef stew or chicken and dumplings from a dollar store.
I agree there are better options out there.
The Hormel Compleats breakfasts are the worst microwave meals I’ve ever eaten. Most microwave meals aren’t very good, but these things are a whole new level of bad.
The Hormel Compleats dinners are better, but still bad.
The thing that gets me is that these had to make it through some sort of focus group. Also there is a lot of shelf space dedicated to them at the supermaket, so people must be buying them.
I love the Chicken Alfredo, you can eat it hot or cold, I have eaten some that were 8 years over the expiration date, and still yummmy!
I am not sure about adding salt, as all the Hormel meals I have seen have over 900 mg of sodium. I cooked mine according to the directions and found them quite good. I like bland food, if it hurts my tongue, I don’t eat it. lol
There is a good amount of fat, but with eggs and bacon and cheese, I was not surprise, I licked my bowl!
I will be buying more of these.