My neighbor is somewhat of hiker and a disaster “prepper” who follows sites like the Woodpile Report and
https://sectionhiker.com/how-to-speed-up-esbit-cube-cooking/ and he thinks Esbits are great to have around ... just in case.
I looked up the label on my Esbit package and it says : contains METHENAMINE, which when Googled gets all kinds of weird results.
The tabs I recently used that were non-smelly and had the texture of a sugar cube. They may be desiccated.
I think I’ll try and get some newer Esbit and re-evaluate it for running the steam engines. If it still is the stinky stuff , my neighbor says he will gladly take it if I don't want it.
[DrRevDelmar— the old “toothless hick” version of the wicked meths is old skool. Since the TV series Breaking Bad it is a high tech international high octane object of addiction shipped from south of the border. Evil stuff]