# What is this grey slab (USN dinner)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [April 18, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372 "2026-04-18T23:41:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TheTyrant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thetyrant/32/19111_2.png) [@TheTyrant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTyrant)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/41 "2026-04-19T22:18:45Z")
It was great on my boat, but I’ve worked on subs ever since getting out and have been on rides on literally dozens of boats and… well, it varies. The determining factor is really **how much do the cooks care?** Really, it’s the same institutional food you’d find prepared in any cafeteria. Difference on the boat is that they’re cooking for 130ish people they know and like (hopefully) so a lot of cooks can do wonderful things with what they’ve given. On the other side of the coin, I’ve been at real garbage commands with nonexistent morale and the food on those boats is generally poor to “meh.” ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/42 "2026-04-19T23:11:05Z")
> [@TheTyrant](#): > > I was in sonar and we were always undermanned so sonar never cranked at sea on my boat. My turn to crank didn’t come up until I was already a qualified E5 and _I loved it._ I never did crank. My first boat was newcon, and when they started up the galley they of course started with the E3s as cranks. By the time the first E4 started cranking, I was an E5, and I was qualified well before the first E5 went cranking. We coners had a good laugh when the first non-qual nukes went to the mess decks. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/43 "2026-04-20T03:01:24Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > A 688 has five tables, two six-man (one of which was the chiefs’ table) and three four-man. Dessert and a big bowl of salad were on the counter at the forward end of the space; everything else was served through the window. Drinks and desserts (if you didn’t pick one up on the way to a table) were delivered by the ~~cranks~~ mess cooks. As an officer on a 688, I was required to eat in the wardroom. Even junior officers were absolutely prohibited from eating in the crew’s mess. Which we definitely would have preferred because meals in the wardroom were a slog. This was because lunch and dinner were always formal affairs with separate courses. Soup, salad, main course, dessert. And you couldn’t arrive late or leave early. If you were late, you didn’t eat. And if you didn’t want a course, you just had to sit there. At least breakfast and midrats (midnight rations) weren’t formal. You just told the mess attendant what you wanted (out of what was available). > [@DPRK](#): > > I have seen and heard good things about the food on U.S. nuclear submarines. From my experience, this is true. And the food on boomers (ballistic missile submarines) is even better than the food on fast attack submarines. Which leads to a funny(?) sea story: I was on on a 688 (fast attack sub) that was sent to an urgent drydocking for repairs at the sub base in King’s Bay, Georgia—which is a ballistic missile submarine base, Anyway, after a few weeks there we needed to buy some food to replenish our stores, only to be told by the base supply officer that the food was “for missile boats only.” So our supply officer made friends with the supply officer of a missile boat, and bought $75K of food from their boat. Then we had a transfer party move stores from one sub to another. And the missile boat then immediately put in an order to replenish their stores. (Yet another one of those workarounds to overcome the petty tyrants of Navy bureaucracy.) I remember that the food we got from that transfer was much better than our normal food. For example, they had name-brand items, like Jif peanut butter, instead of weird off-brands nobody had ever heard of like “Little Jasper’s” peanut butter. But the best food we ever got was on a deployment when we resupplied in Tromsø, Norway. We got some kind of mix there for our soft-ice cream machine that actually tasted good. We were allowed to resupply at a foreign base because we were getting really low on stores. Meals were getting pretty weird by the end: like chili mac and canned beets. > [@TheTyrant](#): > > It was great on my boat, but I’ve worked on subs ever since getting out and have been on rides on literally dozens of boats and… well, it varies. The determining factor is really **how much do the cooks care?** Another factor was feedback from the crew. I did a deployment once where the crew kept complaining the food was “too spicy.” So the cooks kept cutting back all of the spices to basically nothing until the food was completely flavorless. In the wardroom we were going through cases of hot sauce just to put some flavor back into the food. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/44 "2026-04-20T03:08:41Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Exactly this. At the end of the day, I don’t know if these ships are experiencing genuine problems getting replenished or not. But it’s not as if the food got onto this sailor’s tray by someone going “Here’s your meal for the day, now shut up and eat.” They went to a cafeteria-style buffet line and self-selected what went on their tray. The only time I’ve ever eaten military chow in my life was when I was 15 in 1998 and I got picked from my Navy JROTC high school class to do a week-long “mini boot camp” at Camp Pendleton, and we ate in the same chow hall that the Marines did. It was indeed served cafeteria-style and you got your choice of an entree and sides. I don’t remember much of what I ate except that the chili mac was decent and our student officers kept warning us not to fill up our canteens with soda from the fountain dispenser. > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Ever wondered why fresh meat sometimes turns grey? The packaged sliced gyro meat that I suggested above, which sounds like it’s a civilian equivalent of the “meat loaf” mentioned above, is already slightly gray in the package. I assume it’s because it’s been ground, processed, baked, sliced, and vacuum-sealed for extended shelf life before being sold. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/45 "2026-04-20T05:00:34Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > But more importantly, it hasn’t exactly shattered the record True. The news was the other day, the first day the record was set, but _Ford_ is still deployed. It looks like _H W Bush_ is relieving her? I did not know she’d stopped in Crete. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/46 "2026-04-24T02:08:29Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The packaged sliced gyro meat that I suggested above, which sounds like it’s a civilian equivalent of the “meat loaf” mentioned above, is already slightly gray in the package. I assume it’s because it’s been ground, processed, baked, sliced, and vacuum-sealed for extended shelf life before being sold. I’ve cooked and sliced roast beef that looked like that. It was processed, flavoured, and vacuum sealed for extended shelf life before I bought, cooked and sliced it. The texture was very good, so I suspect that the flavouring process also softened it somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/47 "2026-04-26T23:37:41Z")
> [@robby](#): > > As an officer on a 688, I was required to eat in the wardroom. Even junior officers were absolutely prohibited from eating in the crew’s mess. Which we definitely would have preferred because meals in the wardroom were a slog. > > **This was because lunch and dinner were always formal affairs with separate courses. Soup, salad, main course, dessert. And you couldn’t arrive late or leave early. If you were late, you didn’t eat. And if you didn’t want a course, you just had to sit there. At least breakfast and midrats (midnight rations) weren’t formal. You just told the mess attendant what you wanted (out of what was available).** Bolding by Tripler I have _so many questions about this_ borne out of: - Being Air Force EOD, serving as XO of a US Navy Staff (and part of the ‘Wardroom’), in a Marine Corps battlespace (2 MARDIV) in Afghanistan overseeing an Army Platoon & Air Force Flight; - I visited the _Nebraska_ in port, for a ‘walk-through’ tour, a couple of years ago, and walked through the _actual_ Wardroom where the junior officers were doing their paperwork between patrols. There was an obvious air of formality, even while at berth. Now, I _get_ the tradition of the Officers’ Mess, but the Navy seems to take it to the “nth degree.” But what do I know? I’ll take it to another thread . . . Tripler My usual messing: “Hey Mike, huck me an MRE, woudja?” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/48 "2026-04-26T23:55:49Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > My usual messing: “Hey Mike, huck me an MRE, woudja?” If it’s all the same to you, I’ll just gently hand you an MRE, and not make any sudden movements in the presence of the EOD officer. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/49 "2026-04-26T23:58:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If it’s all the same to you, I’ll just gently hand you an MRE, and not make any sudden movements in the presence of the EOD officer. Just don’t **drop** it, and we’re cool. 😃 Tripler Nerves of steel, and jittery only while on decaf. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/50 "2026-04-27T00:28:38Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Just don’t **drop** it, and we’re cool. 😃 I understand the heating packs contained in some MREs can be crudely fashioned into something of an IED themselves… ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/51 "2026-04-27T00:51:47Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Even junior officers were absolutely prohibited from eating in the crew’s mess. During the halfway night festivities on deployment all ten seats in the wardroom would be auctioned off (real money, donated to the boat’s rec fund) for the evening meal. The highest bidder got the CO’s armchair, at the head of the table, and a cook waited on them, as was normal for that table. The CO and XO, and all the other officers, ate that meal in the crew’s mess. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/52 "2026-04-28T04:01:02Z")
A recent YouTube video from the channel “What’s going on with shipping” is pertinent. Great channel from someone who know what he is talking about. (Ex service, PhD in naval logistics, etc etc.) For a clear, well reasoned, and clearly expert commentary on the current conflicts, and its wider ramifications you can’t do much better. He makes the point that apparently the food picture in question is old and doesn’t represent anything to do with the current deployment. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tsDvoEj1xgY/maxresdefault.jpg "Logistics in the Indian Ocean During Operation Epic Fury | Sealift & the US Merchant Marine") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsDvoEj1xgY) ---
**Author:** ![sb1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@sb1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sb1953)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/53 "2026-04-28T12:56:39Z")
My father served 3 years in the US army in WW-2. He had one opportunity to volunteer on a cruise on the USS Ranger (CV-4) that was ferrying fighter planes to N. Africa. His opinion was that “Those Navy guys get great chow” (compared to Army food. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2026, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/54 "2026-04-28T19:09:57Z")
These days, I’d say the tables have very much turned. The DFAC in Iraq was much better than any food I had as an officer on a ship. And I wasn’t even on one of the major FOBs where the DFACs bordered on luxury dining (relatively speaking). Plus, Army types (with some very minimal exceptions) get to spend a lot more time on land, which is worth the occasional MRE. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/55 "2026-04-29T20:50:40Z")
The Washington Post reports that the USS Gerald R. Ford (an aircraft carrier) will depart the Middle East after a deployment of 309 days, or roughly ten months. > As of Wednesday, the Ford had been deployed 309 days — the record for the longest time any modern U.S. aircraft carrier has been at sea, which has worn on the ship. It’s undergone some repairs after sustaining damage in a laundry room fire that injured some sailors, and the ship has had repeated issues with its toilets. Once the ship is back in port, it is expected to undergo extensive repairs and maintenance. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/56 "2026-05-02T19:31:56Z")
Yeah, but I respectfully decline to comment on ‘_how_’ on a public message board. “_If these damn fool kids an’ all these days are willing to eat Tide pods because they saw it on the YouTube, not telling how stupid they’re gonna be elsewhere._” – a loose approximation of a conversation at work. Tripler A “_…get off my lawn!_” was in there somewhere too. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/57 "2026-05-02T21:10:33Z")
Well … explosives will generally get them off your lawn. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/58 "2026-05-02T21:18:54Z")
Land mines on the lawn complicate lawnmowing. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/59 "2026-05-02T21:26:13Z")
You kidding? Setting one off seems like a quick and easy way to clear overgrown grass. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/60 "2026-05-02T21:27:44Z")
Would I kid? No, as long as you mow the lawn north-south first and then east-west, you won’t have any problems. We lost a couple of good gardeners who couldn’t remember that. (We also lost some nice Toro mowers in the process.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372.md?page=4)