Just to add something else which may or may not be interesting - Bovril has a weirdly close association with British football and was traditionally pretty widely drank during the winter months - probably because alcohol is banned inside football stadia. To the extent that the main Scottish football forum is called &quot;Pie &amp; Bovril&quot; (meat pies are commonplace too) whose tagline is &quot;The Staple Diet of Scottish Football&quot;. Some might say that this diet is reflected in the sorry state of our national team, but those would be cruel people :)<p>edit: the &quot;See Also&quot; section of the page says that sewage transport boats in London were referred to as &quot;Bovril boats&quot;. Yuck!