and let’s not even mention Bovril…
MMMMMM…Marmite!
I’ve lived in the States (Arkansas, for Gawd’s sake) since I was three or four, and I LOVE Marmite. Like Olentzero, I slather it over toast, usualy with a little margerine on first, to help it spread. Unfortunately, it’s damn hard to find, and a little bit more expensive than Russian Beluga caviar, when you can find it (well worth it though.)
It has no beef stock. I don’t know where that canard got started, but I first saw it in a footnote to a story I read in my 7th grade English class. I think I even brought a little jar in to show my teacher to prove that the book was wrong! It says clearly on the lable, 100% vegan! This is important for me, since I’m a fourth generation vegetarian (I’m trying to loosen up and be less snotty about it though, since I encountered some of those real "Holier than thou types.)
Anyway, I usually don’t even like foods that salty, but Marmite is the best. I’ve even tried in hot water (My mom told me her family drank it ocasionally) and I even liked that. I guess it’s an aquired taste, like all true delicacies.
What is Bovril, anyway?
Powdered or cubed soup stock. The beef and chicken kinds can be used to flavour gravy or, mixed with water, they make good emergency soup. There’s also a vegetable Bovril which is good for flavouring rice.
Yes, Leslie, that’s exactly what Vegemite is… the sludge left after they’ve made beer.
The two most awful tastes I’ve ever had in my mouth were the time I had a bad snail, and Vegemite. I think, of the two, the Vegemite was worse, the taste lingered for days. My Aussie friend who slathered a bunch on a cracker for me thought the expression on my face was hysterically funny.
If you really want some fun, bring Vegamite into the US and tell the customs people you have it. They don’t know what it is, but they thought it was a good idea to searh my suitcade, just in case.
I suspect the reason Vegemite, Marmite and stuff like Picadilly and Branston’s Pickle (which looks like elephant snot in a jar) was invented is because (a) they keep for a long time without refrigeration (b) they’ve got lots of vitamins (IIRC, yeast has lots of B vitamins). I suppose if you were on long sea voyages (as the British would’ve had to take to reach their colonies back in the 19th century), eating this stuff would’ve been preferable to scurvy & beriberi…tho,not by much, IMHO, but British sailors at least got grog rations so they’d soused enough not to notice the taste.
The stuff might seem disgusting to us, but Americans export grunt like Big Macs, and Marmite I’m sure is a damn sight healthier than most of the stuff Ronald McCoronary sells.
What’s really silly is current British gov’t regs regarding beef…you can’t legally eat BBQ ribs in England! Chances are like at least 1000X more you’ll get E Coli poisoning from beef than Creuzfeld-Jacobs disease, and there’s no indication that the infection rate from C-J is any worse in countries where people usually eat beef on the bone…heck, Mexicans eat lots of espinaza (spine) and sesos (brains)…no problen I know of. Sesos are tastier than Vegemite, too.
I had always thought that Marmite was a brand name of vegemite- like Jell-o brand gellatin.