Bovril Recipe Booklets
- Year
- 1900-1960
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- Trade/Advertising
Issued by Bovril Ltd over roughly six decades, the Bovril Recipe Booklets form a long-running series of promotional pamphlets demonstrating culinary uses for the company's beef extract in soups, sauces, savoury dishes and invalid cookery. Numerous editions appeared in varying formats and illustrative styles, and complete runs are scarce. Collectively they document the evolution of branded food advertising and the domestic kitchen's gradual embrace of manufactured flavourings.
Cooking from this book
Beef Tea
Signature dishBeef Tea is the dish most closely tied to the Bovril booklets, a warming savoury drink made by dissolving the dark meat extract in hot water. Promoted across decades of pamphlets as both a restorative for invalids and a brisk pick-me-up for sportsmen, travellers and chilly spectators, it became a household ritual in Britain. Its prominence in successive editions reflects Bovril's clever blending of advertising with everyday domestic cookery advice.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.