American bouillon — any flavor, not just beef — is unusably salty. “Soup base” is better, and the chicken flavor can actually be used if one does not exceed the recommended dosage, but the beef variety would not improve anything, unless one were willing to use the word “improve” with the same bitter falsity as characterizes the product itself. We must think that Bovril is in some ways better than any of these, but my imagination was formed and constrained by the US products so long ago that it is not up to the task.