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Adventures Making Vegemite
- shoobs 3y agoI've noticed the umami flavour that tends to develop when cooking beer for a long time. An Irish stew with Guinness in it, or a gulas using beer as the staple liquid all develop Vegemite like flavours. I love it, but I think a lot of non-Aussies don't recognise the similarities.
- dekhn 3y agoif you haven't done it, try slowly concentrating guinness in the way you would concentrate stock. Then add a little meat juice. It makes a formidable sauce.
- marssaxman 3y agoThank you for the idea!
- worthless-trash 3y agoI like the note that the author makes: * Vegemite is very salty. * Vegemite is very salty.
- denton-scratch 3y agoIt's significantly saltier than (UK) Marmite.
- nickcw 3y agoI always wondered how Marmite was made and how it was invented and now I know both after reading the article. I'm tempted to give it a go! My family would say I'm obsessed with Marmite. I had Marmite on crumpets for breakfast. Only about 50% of the people in my family like Marmite - it is that sort of thing. Either you love it or hate it! When I was travelling I could only get Vegemite and I came to appreciate that too. It's not Marmite but it is quite similar and will certainly do :-) My father and sister used to enjoy eating Bovril ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril ) which is similar to Marmite/Vegemite but made with meat extract instead of yeast extract. I've never been a big fan, and jokingly we used to call it BSE ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopat... ) in a jar. The Marmite shortage in the pandemic was terrible but luckily I managed to score a catering sized tub which lasted us out the shortage.
- bloopernova 3y agoJust don't follow any of these recipes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSg6aVTm4_c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSg6aVTm4_c (Taskmaster UK, Season 5: Make Marmite. The show is hilarious and I recommend season 5 as a jumping in point to see if you like it.) Oh, and the absolute best advert for Marmite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFLHialhZ8c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFLHialhZ8c
- Loughla 3y agoHoly shit that's so good.
- bonki 3y agoI am currently rewatching Taskmaster while waiting for the current episodes to drop and I watched this exact episode yesterday...best show ever!
- bloopernova 3y agoI'm really liking everyone in the new season, Steve Pemberton is practically Bob Mortimer levels of hilarious. Unfortunately I find it difficult to look at Nick Mohamed's dracula makeup because I have an issue with distorted faces.
- JumpCrisscross 3y agoI tried a Marmite butter at the Goring in London, and it’s become my favourite compound butter.
- jacknews 3y agoThese are great in vegetarian 'minced meat' dishes like chili, to add a meaty umami taste. Having said that, Marmite is clearly vastly superior and has a deeper umami taste than the slightly fake industrial plastic taste of Vegemite. Careful though, I bought a jar of New Zealand Marmite once, thinking it was the same thing as real Marmite, given the same brand name, but, it was barely even passable as 'cooking marmite', let alone on hot buttered toast.
- DEADMINCE 3y ago> Having said that, Marmite is clearly vastly superior and has a deeper umami taste than the slightly fake industrial plastic taste of Vegemite. Huh. I'd say Vegemite is clearly vastly superior as it doesn't have that artificial sweetness taste added to it.
- piva00 3y agoBritish Marmite doesn't have any sweetness to my palate, do you mean the NZ one?
- retsibsi 3y agoWow, I just looked it up and there's a huge difference. UK Marmite has even less sugar than Vegemite, whereas NZ Marmite is 16.8% sugar by weight.
- DEADMINCE 3y agoI wonder what accounts for the sweetness in British Marmite then?
- DEADMINCE 3y agoI've never tried the NZ one. British Marmite is noticeably sweeter than Vegemite to me.
- mirsadm 3y agoI moved from Australia to the UK a few years ago. I never liked Vegemite very much before but find myself really enjoying Marmite. There's an off taste to Vegemite, like almost a strange medicinal flavour.
- mathewsanders 3y agoI have to give a shoutout to New Zealand Marmite which is totally different to British Marmite (I think that NZ marmite has some sweetness as well). Somehow i grew up in a mixed household that had both because my mum preferred Vegemite and I prefer Marmite. In NYC it’s fairly easy to get Australian Vegemite but sadly impossible to find NZ Marmite, instead I do a bulk order every couple of years so that I have a stockpile :)
- julianz 3y agoNZ Marmite includes sugar, which I find horrible, but my family likes it so we have both in the house. I am Vegemite for life.
- djcjcicucuyy 3y ago[dead]
- RowanH 3y agoThis. Imagine my suprise growing up on NZ Marmite, to open a jar of British Marmite and go 'wtf is that slightly gooey stuff'. There's 3 very distinct camps in NZ. Love Marmite - what's wrong with you Vegemite people Love Vegemite - what's wrong with you Marmite people None of the above - what's wrong with the lot of you :)
- veb 3y agoNZ Marmite ftw! I had to tell my mum off for having Vegemite in her pantry the other day, but she had a decent enough excuse that made me giggle. "I buy vegemite because it comes in glass jars and I can reuse them!" oh... I guess that's... practical, Mum!
- caf 3y agoIn the 80s Vegemite used to come in small glass jars with a press-on lid that were designed to be reused as drinking tumblers. It was common to see kitchen cupboards full of those tumblers.
- kebman 3y agoSounds like Australians are the actual Swedes to Norwegians of the Brits, and Americans are kind of like the Danes.
- markx2 3y agoI was first introduced to Marmite by way of Twiglets. I love marmite, I loved twiglets. Then I was forced to go gluten-free. That ruled out both Marmite and Twiglets, also the default Vegemite. I've yet to find gluten-free Twiglets, but thankfully there are gluten-free alts for Marmite and a GF Vegemite. As a Brit, Marmite takes the crown though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiglets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiglets
- johnsillings 3y agoI'm a big Twiglet fan. My partner thinks I'm playing some long-winded joke on her and pretending to like them. But they really are awesome! I need to try Marmite or Vegemite.
- hilbert42 3y ago"was first introduced to Marmite by way of Twiglets. " As a Vegemite addict, I find Twiglets (despite the Marmite) compulsively addictive. Fortunately, they're hard to find over here, hence my addiction is under control. BTW, I also like Marmite but not as much a Vegemite. When I was a kid, we had both at home, my mother favored Marmite, and as the ad goes, the rest of us were happy little Vegemites: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LZF3FBh-n_8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LZF3FBh-n_8
- 082349872349872 3y agoThe first time my father was in the UK, he had just come from the Netherlands, where they put chocolate sprinkles (Hagelslag) on toast, so he thought the open Marmite jar must be something Nutella-like, and slathered it liberally onto his bread. He had just been engaged in the process of pondering how awfully civilised the Brits were when he bit into it.
- ceejayoz 3y agoMy parents brought Vegemite to my elementary school cultural day. Some kid snuck a spoonful thinking it was chocolate. Vomiting ensued.
- caf 3y agoA teaspoon of Vegemite, eaten rather slowly, took the edge off the worst hangover I've ever had.
- DEADMINCE 3y agoAt least that's an honest mistake. Unlike all those YouTubers who clearly know only to spread a little but pretend it's Nutella and dig in with a spoon so they can overreact.
- twic 3y agoMy dad had some American friends come to stay once, with similar assumptions, and a similar lesson.
- esafak 3y agoMy brother in law had a similar experience when he poured our tart ayran over his cereal. "This milk's gone bad!", he cried he as he spat it out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayran
- anjel 3y agoSeems like a tangier Egg cream of NYC fame and lore.
- jjgreen 3y ago*-mite addicts are a bit like alcoholics - Vegemite eater is like the obnoxious drunk that crashes your party - Regular Marmite is the homeless guy drinking whiskey under a bridge - XO Marmite [1] is the homeless guy drinking meths under a bridge I'm in the last category. [1] https://www.marmite.co.uk/p/marmite-xo-yeast-extract-extra-old-250g.html/00000059082279 https://www.marmite.co.uk/p/marmite-xo-yeast-extract-extra-o... [edit: url fixed, thanks ofrzeta]
- ofrzeta 3y agoYour link takes me to the Marmite homepage. This works. No idea what kind of strange URL routing they practice. https://www.marmite.co.uk/p/marmite-xo-yeast-extract-extra-old-250g.html/00000059082279 https://www.marmite.co.uk/p/marmite-xo-yeast-extract-extra-o...
- twic 3y agoI recall that one year, they did a Marmite made from Champagne years for Valentine's day. I vaguely remember that it was quite a bit milder than normal Marmite.
- jjgreen 3y agoAnd they say romance is dead.
- KptMarchewa 3y agoCan't wait for Gran Reserva Marmite VSOP Bourbon Barrel Aged
- vintagedave 3y agoAuthor here: wow. I will see if I can find some of that Marmite XO. Thankyou!
- 29athrowaway 3y agoVegemite is Australian, ask an Australian friend instead.
- nitin-pai 3y agoPromite is better than Vegemite.
- cynicalsecurity 3y agoIn which way? Is it less intense than Vegemite?
- vintagedave 3y agoAuthor here. I haven't had Promite for several years (it's impossible to find where I live) but I remember it being softer in texture (more like a normal spread) and a smoother flavour profile. Less intense (in a good way!) but still robust and flavourful. It was my favourite over Vegemite.
- _joel 3y agoI prefer Thermite on my toast
- mkoubaa 3y agoI prefer dynamite in my butter
- twic 3y agoI've come to think of miso paste as a distant cousin of the Marmite family. Less salty, less acrid, still packed with umami, and with much more discernible flavour. A more civilised cousin, really. Although it's not traditional, you can use them in similar ways; miso paste on buttered toast is quite nice.
- edem 3y agoi second this. to me marmite (and all the rest) is inedible, but i really like miso paste
- fifilura 3y agoI am probably way off here but I also think of Norwegian brunost or Swedish messmör. Essentially boiled down whey. It is certainly much sweeter than vege/marmite, and I am not sure the remainig taste could be classified as umami. But it has a very distinctive taste. And, if I am completely wrong, at least I can claim that the consistency and color is similar to vege/marmite.
- twic 3y agoThat's a really interesting comparison. I think brunost has a lot of flavours that are nothing like Marmite - it's creamy, it's sweet, and it's a bit sour. But they are certainly similar in that they have a sort of concentratedness to them, and in that sensible people hate them.
- wiredfool 3y agoIs that like gaitost, the brown whey cheese? It’s basically solid whey that’s gone through a Maillard reaction to make a sweet, salty cheese like stuff. We made some a few years back, but couldn’t get it to turn out as aell as the commercial stuff.
- fifilura 3y agoI also made it once. The electricity for boiling all that liquid should be what makes up most of the manufacuring cost. Hm I should ask Fjällbrynt how they cope with that. If I remember correctly the trick was in the stirring. Either not stir at all (with the risk of burning), or stir all the time to keep it from crystalizing. Edit: and yes geitost is the goat-whey version.
- LastNevadan 3y agoFor anyone out there about to try Vegemite on toast for the first time: the secret is to only apply a VERY THIN layer. The first time I tried it, I gooped it on like jam. Don't do that! I learned this from my Aussie friend.
- __d 3y agoThey lied. If you can see the texture of the toast, it's not thick enough. I'd forgive them though, perhaps. They might have been thinking to convert you slowly. The big reveal can be overwhelming over the age of one.
- devjam 3y agoI agree, nice and thick, with lots of butter! Don't listen to the advice in the article :-) > The trick is not to spread it thickly like peanut butter; instead, you take about a quarter of a teaspoon’s worth and scrape it thinly over the entire slice.
- tunnuz 3y agoAmazing! I love Vegemite ever since living in Australia. When we later moved to Vienna I bought some with me. My first born has never been anywhere near Australia but is addicted to butter and Vegemite on toast. We also use it to make vegan versions of Italian recipes requiring anchovies.
- fredley 3y agoI am a certified (British) Vegemite fiend, I go out of my way to stock up from the supermarkets that carry it (it's tragic to see a whole metre of shelving, top to bottom, taken up with differently packaged marmite and its derivatives like marmite peanut butter, but not a single tray of vegemite). However, as a child I went through a phase of eating Bovril on toast. Looking forward with not a little apprehension to "Adventures in making Bovril".
- jon_adler 3y agoThis Aussie expat is very thankful for our local Tesco always having Vegemite stock. They also stock Bundaberg Ginger Beer (try it if you haven’t, another Aussie favourite).
- BuildTheRobots 3y agoRoot beer is another one of those flavours you either love or hate, and Bundaberg's is particularly excellent. Sadly it's the only one I've found that contains liquorice, making all others seem lacking by comparison. Slightly surprised to find Bundaberg is actually drunk by Aussie's - cynical me always assumed it was marketing like Fosters. For people who like that sort of thing, it might be worth looking at Euthymol toothpaste. It tastes like a mix of root beer, jagermeister, germolene antiseptic and pink.
- jiehong 3y agoNever ever saw such product in France, though.
- cupantae 3y agoThe article might have been better with fewer asterisks* * This could just be the next sentence
- vintagedave 3y agoAuthor here. I may have gone overboard with the sidenotes.* [*] My wife told me the same thing :)
- Niksko 3y agoKudos to the author for trying this. My approach would be to ignore the junk recipes online and see if there are any patents that describe the process. I'll have a look when I have time. My guess would be that there's some industrial process that completely separates any yeast from anything else so as to remove any potential hop bitterness. And that there's also likely been some updates to the process over the years. It may have started out as boiling things down in the 1920s, but may have moved on to an enzyme catalyzed process these days? On the idea of using a stout: you will end up with even more bitterness than the version you made, more than likely. Stouts (especially higher alcohol stouts) tend to be fairly generously hopped compared to a standard light lager, in order to balance the sweetness of the added malt. You just don't taste them as being super hoppy because a) the hops are added early in the boil for bittering and most of the volatile aromas boil off, and b) because, well, they're doing their job of balancing the sweet malts to make the beer not taste sickly sweet.
- vintagedave 3y agoAuthor here! Thanks, though the kudos really goes to the friend who followed up on the idea of doing it and asked me to pop round in the afternoon and make some. Re process, the linked video talks about using a centrifuge to separate the yeast and liquid, and in fact improvised a home-made centrifuge using a washing machine. It’s possible that simply skimming the top of a settled mixture is not nearly as effective and yeast contamination led to some of poor flavor notes. As for stouts: noted, thanks, looks like I need another approach. The main reason was not just bitterness but colour: to start with a dark liquid to get a black end product. Any thoughts on how both Vegemite and Marmite end up so black?
- grudg3 3y agoI'm surprised no one mentioned it, but smooshing up a soft avocado mixing it with a small amount of Marmite then spreading it on toast is godlike. Top it with a poached egg and it's perfection.
- idontwantthis 3y agoAs an American I was baffled by marmite/vegemite until an Englishman finally explained to me your not supposed to eat it like peanut butter. A small amount mixed with anything savory is delicious. It’s basically msg, salt, and B vitamins.
- willmadden 3y agoOh God, why do that? I bet you could embalm someone with vegemite in a pinch.
- hilbert42 3y agoI'm writing this because like all Vegemite lovers I have to stand up and be counted as one. As Vegemite-ers know, there's absolutely no point discussing Vegemite with those from overseas, especially Americans, let alone trying to get them to taste it. It's a total waste of time! What's more it's potentially risky—a foreigner could likely file assault charges on grounds of attempted poisoning. For the record, I'll eat spoonfuls of the stuff and others around me have been known to hide it away save there being none left. Recently, I've taken to the salt reduced version and I actually rather like it (and I suppose 40% salt reduction is a good thing). Quite some years ago a relative of mine who's living in the US packed eight of the largest jars made to stockpile in his Vegemite-forsaken adopted homeland and apparently US Customs started prodding the jars looking for illicit substances. From what I can gather he wasn't arrested nor were the jars confiscated.
- BoxFour 3y agoChecking in as an American who really loves vegemite and butter on toast in the morning. Thankfully I live in a large city where it’s easy to find. I generally like strong flavors (Matcha, fermented foods, heavy garlic, didn’t hate Durian) so it was a welcome find!
- hilbert42 3y agoRight, there has to be some! I've even met a few myself. But I'll bet the per capita is mighty low. ;-) From my observation, there are (roughly) two types of people who love Vegemite, Marmite, Promite, etc.—those who like strong flavors like you and I do and those who are brought up on it from not long after they've been weaned. If you check out the YouTube link in my other comment you'll note it's aimed at kids. For example, when I was in primary school kids (me included) would often have Vegemite and lettuce sandwiches (kids just wouldn't eat lettuce sandwiches alone). As contrast, our second sandwich would be something quite different (honey and peanut butter, ham and tomato, etc.). I eat chilies, curries and such and was introduced to them very young too, so no doubt that helped. But not completely, some of my liking for strong flavors was innate. I recall when I was about 5 going on 6 my mother made me weak tea with lots of milk and sugar. One day I told her not to put sugar in my tea and only one week later told her to stop the milk and to make it stronger, ever since I've only ever drunk it sans milk and sugar (I simply won't drink tea if either is added).
- DyslexicAtheist 3y agoaccording to Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, Whoppie Goldberg once said that "Vegemite tastes like licking a cat's arse". Although Connolly hasn't asked her about her research. I personally don't understand the war between marmite and vegemite. Nor the craze about reducing the salt. They are both an acquired taste but really staple food once you get used to it. I wouldn't want to start a day without marmite (or vegemite) on some hot buttered toast.
- anotherevan 3y agoAmanda Palmer celebrated Vegemite in a song called Vegemite (The Black Death). “I cannot hold a man so close, who spreads this cancer on his toast…” https://youtu.be/t_BkZYmTQ5c https://youtu.be/t_BkZYmTQ5c
- simondotau 3y agoIt’s like Pepsi vs Coke, but without the ease of appeal of 12% sugar content. Behind the imposing wall of salt, they have subtle yet significant differences in flavour. An alternative probably won’t trigger the same comfort memories.
- stevespang 3y ago[dead]
- 99112000 3y agoThe best vegemite I ever had was from a 6 foor 4 muscular man in Brussels
- throwaway0665 3y agoThe muscular fellow?
- __d 3y agoDid he speak your language?
- fuzztester 3y agohttps://youtu.be/aGLgu9QQJTo?si=vjxjjfxUe0zWHX1R https://youtu.be/aGLgu9QQJTo?si=vjxjjfxUe0zWHX1R
- anotherevan 3y agoLate '80s we had some American's visiting who were curiously watching us spread this stuff that looked like axle grease on our toast. "You want to try some?" "Sure!" So one of us got a tablespoon and said, "Open wide." The moral is, don't trust us Australians when it comes to local cuisine or fauna (or the intersection thereof.)
- hilbert42 3y ago"...got a tablespoon" Did they head straight for the airport? ;-)
- anotherevan 3y agoStraight to the bathroom. The airport shortly thereafter.
- hilbert42 3y agoHa, I suppose as expected.
- nzealand 3y agoAmerica actually has a beefy abomination called Beefy Bovrite, which kind of looks like it might be somewhat like Marmite and Vegemite, but sadly is not.
- emmelaich 3y agoFun fact. Vegemite is kosher and halal.
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- roydivision 3y agoThe word Marmite is now used in British English to describe something that one either loves or hates, little or no middle ground. "The band U2 are very Marmite"