In 1870, Napoleon III was waging war on the Prussians, and he needed one million tins of beef to feed his troops.  A Scotsman named Johnson landed the gig and concocted Bovril, a concentrated beef paste that can be spread on crackers, eaten with a spoon, whathaveyou.  Its most popular incarnation became, and remains, mixed into hot water.  Napoleon died and Prussia disappeared, but instant beef soup marched on.  Apparently, generations of soccer fans and sufferers of the common cold have soldiered through their bludgeoning English winters on the strength of Bovril.  Pope Leo XIII even stumped for it with the ad slogan: The Two Infallible Powers – The Pope & Bovril.

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