A closer look
Justus von Liebig accidentally created the massive modern bouillon cube industry because he was desperately trying to figure out what to do with mountains of rotting cow flesh! The nineteenth-century chemist developed a thick, dark, syrupy meat extract to provide cheap nutrition for impoverished Europeans, but shipping liquid meat goo across the world proved highly problematic. He partnered with an engineer in South America who had access to massive herds of cattle that were only being slaughtered for their leather hides, leaving millions of tons of beef to rot in the sun. By boiling this excess meat down into a highly concentrated paste, they revolutionized global food storage and eventually paved the way for those tiny salty squares in your pantry. Your comforting bowl of chicken noodle soup owes its existence to an industrial leather byproduct crisis!
