Blossom: VICTORY CUISINE part four: Bovril

In the VICTORY CUISINE (CUISINE! Cuisine! cuisine!) series I will explore a range of Extraordinary New (and old) Foods that nowadays, we would think of as weird and wonderful - or incredibly dated - but that played their role in nutrition during the forties.

I do hope you will enjoy VICTORY CUISINE (CUISINE! Cuisine! cuisine!) however, and perhaps you will even hop into the comments and suggest a few things yourself.

If you do want to see me try out something a bit special - won't you consider sponsoring me to do so? If your donation is generous enough, I might be persuaded to try many things. Once.



I have been rather unwell lately, and in a previous blog I hinted that I had a cunning plan in mind to deal with the situation. A very forties solution, known to all good English housewives. A sustaining hot drink with energy-boosting properties. A nice cup of Bovril.

Back in the Olden Days, Mrs Beeton (along with her friend Florence Nightingale) observed the benefits of providing invalids with iron-rich sustaining drinks of beef tea. Beef tea - which was every bit as disgusting as it sounds - was easy to feed to a sick or wounded patient, and helped to improve healing rates as well as delivering a boost of much-needed calories to help the patient to fight their illness.

The benefits of beef tea were very well known by the forties, but improvements in food technology and storage had already led to the creation of such delights as Bovril.

WHAAAAAAH!

You knew I was going to write that, didn't you?

Bovril is a rich, treacly beef (or yeast-based yet beef-flavoured) concentrate, that comes in jars, stores extremely well, and has a range of uses. Very similar to our beloved Vegemite in appearance, taste and function, it can be used as an instant stock, spread on toast (in lieu of the popular beef dripping), or mixed with hot water to create a passable - and much more palatable - 20th century version of beef tea.

Bovril was far easier to get hold of in the forties than actual beef. Any small child of the era must have been very grateful for this small mercy. Rather than a greasy concoction of smelly, half-raw meat juice, Bovril creates a rich intense salty beverage that is much easier to bear. Throughout the second world war, children and adults alike were fed regular hot cups of Bovril to help their headcolds and flus, headaches and chills, and even wounds. People on duty at night, firefighting or working as wardens or ambulance drivers, took thermoses of Bovril to give them energy and warm them up. Even soldiers were given Bovril to perk them up in the trenches.

I decided that since I couldn't seem to shake off my ague, I could use a boost. Beef tea made from Bovril might provide the extra vim I needed to recover properly.

I obtained a jar at the supermarket. When I opened it, I could have sworn I'd just opened the Vegemite jar. The fragrance was very similar, although the texture of Bovril is much more liquid.

Treacly. Mmmm.

Okay. I popped a spoonful in my cup, added hot water from the kettle and gave it a good stir. That's all it took.

Ready to drink.

The fragrance was really very rich. Meaty and extremely savoury. I wasn't too certain what to expect, and I could imagine that it could have been actually quite horrible. But my Vegemite-familiarised palate was certainly not put off by either the sight or flavour.

Let's give it a try.

Feeling rather bleah. Smells like Vegemite. Am I about to drink a mugful of Vegemite water?

Meh - who cares? The savoury scent was really quite attractive.

I took my first sip.

Surprise! Category: pleasant.

It was delicious. I suspect if you had never enjoyed the delights of Vegemite Toast, this would come as a terrible shock. However, to me it tasted really satisfyingly salty, meaty and substantial.

I liked it and I drained the cup.

So did it work ...?

Yes. Chock-full of vim!

For a few hours, at least, it did seem to give me a lovely boost.

I suppose that after the tyranny of Carrots With Everything it was nice to get a big burst of that umami flavour. The saltiness was comforting and it reminded me of childhood, nibbling Vegemite crusts, watching Skippy and being looked after.

If I should ever find myself sick and miserable, or up late at night and wanting a bit of a boost, or out somewhere cold doing energetic stuff, you can bet I will cheerfully turn to the kettle or Thermos, and a jar of Bovril.

Hmmm, I wonder if it's nice on toast ...?

Bovril as a hot drink: 9.5/10.

Frock you later,
Blossom