Beefy Bovril is Liquid Cow!
Beefy Bovril is the beef extract equivalent of Vegemite, except it’s a runny, treacle like toxic substance remotely tasting like Vegemite (which is a yeast extract).
I think Beefy Bovril is a cow-flavoured jam tasting like a nasty concoction of charcoaled animal lard and stale stout infused with cow poo.
The Beefy Bovril Story
One story of its origins was that the French army were notorious surrenderors in the late 1800s, because of a lack of meat sustenance.
The Beefy Bovril Legend was that the French government ordered a million tins of beef from a shrewd Scotsman who realised there was no way he could meet the dodgy contract by poaching fat cattle alone. Instead, he boiled up any meat he could lay his hands on (probably including decomposing haggis) and spent his time mashing the meat through a sieve.
He had unwittingly developed liquid bovine that had a shelf life longer than the half-life of highly radioactive nuclear power station waste.
Why people preferred buying preserved gooey beef instead of fresh solid beef was beyond me.
Anyway, Beefy Bovril is still around, so there must be a market for this strange product! If you’re desperate for a protein hit, Beefy Bovril might just be for you!
Or maybe you could try some other weird food, listed in my post of 52 Weird Food and Drink Facts!
More Beefy Bovril Stuff
Ironically, if you love the stuff, check out The Bovril Cookbook.











The problem that you are experiencing with Bovril is taht you just haven’t yet given in to it yet! Unlike Vegemite (or even marmite) as you previously mentioned, Bovil is best enjoyed as a hot brothy beefy drink not as some sandwich spread. Until you’ve lived in Scotland for some time and have had the pleasure of getting that chill that freezes you right to the bone with no amount of heat or clothing layering able to warm you up…and then you turn on the kettle for that beefy goodness that is BEEF DRINK and the thaw in your bones begins with the rest of your body soon following. They even used to sell bovril in the markets and it was the drink of choice to generations past to take to work in their thermos.
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anthony Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Hmm, so it’s nice to wash down the haggis with Bovril then? ;P urrrghhh
[Reply]
kayti Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
HARK – now you’re on to something!
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