I have noticed that most current survival recommendations seem to have moved away from bouillon cubes as an element. Even though John McCann's book, "Stay Alive, Survival skills you need" (1st ed) does mention them for smaller kits. While Len McDougall's book "Practical Outdoor survival" does not mention them. Bradford Angier's book, "How to stay alive in the woods," Casually mentions broth or soup, while Creek Stewart's book, "Build the perfect Bug out bag," does not. .


What is the current thinking on Bouillion cubes? How many for a small or medium kit?

Food is not a priority for short term survival. A pocket sized container does not offer much room for luxury.
For a small or medium sized kit my answer would be zero. The room could be used for more imoprtant things like matches, water purification or water containers. In a medium sized kit, I´d rather include a space blanket. That will save more calories than the same volume of boullion cubes can provide.
Boullion cubes should be kept cool for storage. Carried on the body they tend to go bad fairly fast and they sometimes leak some fat too. IMHO it´s just not worth the hassle.

A bouillion cube might save someone from hyponatremia.

I am unaware of any peer reviewed, double blind study not financed by the bouillon cube cartel that has assessed the efficacy of cubes in a survival context, so the jury is still out, or, rather, hasn't yet been selected...

While food in of relatively less priority in most short time survival contexts, dehydration and electrolyte balance is critical, as is morale. I usually have room in a carefully packed kit to insert packets of tea, coffee (Via is preferred), sugar, or what have you. Bouillon cubes are just fine, provided you have water, but they aren't critical.

I had always thought of bouillon cubes as more of a morale issue, as hikemor mentioned above. In a wilderness or outdoor situation, the ability to sit down and have a cup of broth as an excellent way to "Relax and refresh" while taking a mental break. Tea is also an excellent possibility.

Just looking at the nutritional info on Wyler' brand of bouillon cubes:

1 cube
6 calories
<1 Gram protein
<1 Gram fat
1 Gram carbohydrate
Sodium 930 Mg.

Have to agree with jshannon, an amazing amount of Sodium.

More comfort than survival necessity/supply

it seems to me the cubes made their way into kits when there was not really much else to be had in the way of a survival "food".
in the 50's when kits really got started there were no power bars or energy gups on the market.if you were lucky surplus military life boat or bail out kits could be broken down for the compact rations in them.i take the larger bouillon cubes on canoe trips and every few years boil one up on a nasty wet and cold day to go with a MRE cracker and like it was said they can be a comfort food if you happen to have developed a taste for them.the hassle with them is of course you need to "cook" them for best results and that means a pot,water and fire all of those are a survival problems in themselves.
sorry,another 1:30am ramble.

Hypothermia is always a real consideration for my survival kits, even in the summer, and especially around the water. I like to have a tasty hot brew up at the ready in all my kits.

Bullion cubes or cup-o-soup are lightweight and take up little space, ditto tea, instant coffee/hot chocolate/cider/Koolaid. I suspect my hot chocolate or 3-in-1 coffee provide me with more benefit than a bullion cube, so they are my basic short-term emergency go tos these days, rather than bullion, except in my fishing kit emerg kit. I've got one of each in there! Bullion goes great with fresh fish and I can't imagine a better survival meal than that, frankly!

(FYI - I keep a sachet of koolaid in my kits too, for fighting hypothermia in the kiddos, and also for cool re-hydration.)

Ditto, these are the small packets you can pack inside your favorite cup (Snow Peak 700) with a box of matches/lighter and tinder; put it all in one place. Then just get a fire going and add water. As MAX indicates in the second post, bullion cubes are not exactly stable in warmer temps. But then if it's too warm for a bullion cube, hypothermia may not be an issue. If it's cool enough, carrying a bullion cube should not be a problem. This is one of those things that changes with the seasons.

I keep a small 2 ounce thingy of gatorade powder in the car in the summer. Flavor + calories + salts. I used to just carry those little sugar free lemonades, but I figured it made more sense to get something more out of it..

I agree with Bacpacjac completely on the coffee thing- have a few of those powdered cappuccino things in the winter; close enough to coffee for me, close enough to hot chocolate for the kids