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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Oxo
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The name given in Britain in 1899 to Liebig's Extract of Beef, a concentrated essence of beef for use in making the drink known as 'beef tea'. A method of extracting some of the nutritional value from beef had been devised in the 1840s by the German chemist Justus von Liebig. His extract was manufactured from the 1860s in Argentina, where beef was cheap, and it was on sale in Britain from 1865. It is not known precisely how the inspired name of Oxo came into being, but the word was soon familiar all over Britain – particularly on the characteristic enamelled advertisements at railway stations. Oxo cubes soon followed; 'chocolate would be very welcome, also Oxo tablets' writes a soldier from the front in 1915.
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