Bovril

Done mustard. Here's a post about another jar of stuff.

Did you know that Bovril used to made from boiled up cows? But due to BSE the Bovril bigwigs deciding not to boil up any more cow-bits that might make it's customers go mental. So they made Bovril with yeast extracts instead.

Only Bovril have now decided to boil up cows again.

I really like Cup a Soup (or Soup-a Cup! as I like to call it) but I've recently started drinking Bovril, which with it's yeast extract is full of B vitamins, and is a heathy low fat snack-drink. Unlike Cream of Mushroom Soup-a-Cup which is certainly soup-a, but has a high fat content and I imagine all the mushroomy goodness is destroyed in the mushroom dehyydrating and dessication stages. I don't really know how they make Cup a Soup, but I'm imagining you don't either. You'll probably believe me if I sound like I know about mushroom dessication...

Cup a Soup is for the most part vegetarian. As is Pot Noodle. Even Chicken and Mushroom. But that's another post. However I really do like these vegetarian-yet meaty tasting snacks. Bacon crisps too. No piggies are crisped in the making!

Bovril Bigwig's have now decided cow brain's are safe again, so they've taken to distilling these into savoury black paste again. This is Bad News for vegetarians. Bovril will henceforth be meaty, and as a vegetarian I can no longer enjoy it's savoury B vitamin goodness.

Of course there is Marmite. But everyone knows Marmite is a spread and not a spread/drink. Plus who's ever heard of 'M vitamins'?

As this is a very recent decision by the spread/drink manufacturers I thought it would still be possible to buy the vegetarian jars of Bovril. Like mustard, Bovril has a long shelf life, so I decided next time I saw it in Sainsbury's I'd stock up.

And do you know you can use Bovril as a stock too? All the more reason to stock up - or even 'Bovril up'?

I've considered that I'm not likely to be the only vegetarian to feel this way. So when I saw jars of vegetarian Bovril in Sainsbury's I decided to buy the lot and sell it to fellow Bovril-addict vegetarians on Ebay. Vegetarians are middle class, they have disposable income, nice home computers with broadband, and they don't worry about using their credit cards for online shopping... Perfect! I was sure that a 'black market' in Bovril would soon develop - and make me as rich as it's meaty-licious flavour!

Only when I got to Sainsbury's in Balham did I hit a problem. Every jar on the shelf was 'Beefy Bovril'. I looked on Ebay and it's not there. I have only half a jar left... Then it's Minestrone Cup a Soup. What is a minestrone anyway? I hope they didn't kill any to make my soup...