[HN Gopher] Adventures Making Vegemite
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Adventures Making Vegemite
Author : vintagedave
Score : 126 points
Date : 2024-04-07 13:55 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (daveon.design)
(TXT) w3m dump (daveon.design)
| shoobs wrote:
| I'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 wrote:
| if 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 wrote:
| Thank you for the idea!
| worthless-trash wrote:
| I like the note that the author makes:
|
| * Vegemite is very salty.
|
| * Vegemite is very salty.
| denton-scratch wrote:
| It's significantly saltier than (UK) Marmite.
| nickcw wrote:
| I 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 ) 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_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 wrote:
| Just don't follow any of these recipes:
| 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
| Loughla wrote:
| Holy shit that's so good.
| bonki wrote:
| I am currently rewatching Taskmaster while waiting for the
| current episodes to drop and I watched this exact episode
| yesterday...best show ever!
| bloopernova wrote:
| I'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 wrote:
| I tried a Marmite butter at the Goring in London, and it's
| become my favourite compound butter.
| jacknews wrote:
| These 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 wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| British Marmite doesn't have any sweetness to my palate, do
| you mean the NZ one?
| retsibsi wrote:
| Wow, 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 wrote:
| I've never tried the NZ one. British Marmite is noticeably
| sweeter than Vegemite to me.
| mirsadm wrote:
| I 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.
| jaredhallen wrote:
| Although I've been aware of it for many years, I've never had
| vegemite (or marmite for that matter), and never really knew
| what it was. Reading this (and watching the video) got me
| thinking along the same lines as you mention. Seems like it
| could be interesting used as a bullion/soup base, or maybe used
| like Worcestershire.
| willmadden wrote:
| It tastes like soggy beef bullion cubes melted in beer
| manufacturing byproducts. Don't do it.
| mathewsanders wrote:
| I 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 :)
| RowanH wrote:
| This. 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 wrote:
| NZ 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!
| kebman wrote:
| Sounds like Australians are the actual Swedes to Norwegians of
| the Brits, and Americans are kind of like the Danes.
| twic wrote:
| The Irish are the Icelanders? The Finns are ... South
| Africans?!
| markx2 wrote:
| I 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
| johnsillings wrote:
| I'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 wrote:
| _" 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
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| The 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 wrote:
| My parents brought Vegemite to my elementary school cultural
| day. Some kid snuck a spoonful thinking it was chocolate.
| Vomiting ensued.
| DEADMINCE wrote:
| At 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 wrote:
| My dad had some American friends come to stay once, with
| similar assumptions, and a similar lesson.
| esafak wrote:
| My 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
| anjel wrote:
| Seems like a tangier Egg cream of NYC fame and lore.
| _zoltan_ wrote:
| these two are worlds apart.
| Octabrain wrote:
| Same thing happened to me when I moved to the UK: I went to the
| supermarket, bought one jar or Marmite, went back home, had a
| toast with it expecting to have some sweet-close-to-chocolate
| flavour and then I was shocked. I have to admit that I actually
| liked although I don't eat it regularly these days because that
| wild amount of salt cannot be healthy in any manner.
| jjgreen wrote:
| *-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-o...
|
| [edit: url fixed, thanks ofrzeta]
| ofrzeta wrote:
| Your 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-o...
| twic wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| And they say romance is dead.
| KptMarchewa wrote:
| Can't wait for Gran Reserva Marmite VSOP Bourbon Barrel Aged
| vintagedave wrote:
| Author here: wow. I will see if I can find some of that Marmite
| XO. Thankyou!
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| Vegemite is Australian, ask an Australian friend instead.
| nitin-pai wrote:
| Promite is better than Vegemite.
| _joel wrote:
| I prefer Thermite on my toast
| mkoubaa wrote:
| I prefer dynamite in my butter
| cynicalsecurity wrote:
| In which way? Is it less intense than Vegemite?
| twic wrote:
| I'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 wrote:
| i second this. to me marmite (and all the rest) is inedible,
| but i really like miso paste
| fifilura wrote:
| I am probably way off here but I also think of Norwegian
| brunost or Swedish messmor. 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 wrote:
| That'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 wrote:
| Is 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 wrote:
| I 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 Fjallbrynt 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.
| marssaxman wrote:
| When I make a grilled cheese sandwich, I like to smear one
| slice of bread thinly with miso paste (and the other with
| dijon). Vegemite suddenly made sense once I realized it is used
| in much the same way.
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| miso paste with raw vegetable sticks like cucumber, carrot or
| cabbage is awesome.
| LastNevadan wrote:
| For 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.
| tunnuz wrote:
| Amazing! 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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| This 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 wrote:
| Root 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 wrote:
| Never ever saw such product in France, though.
| cupantae wrote:
| The article might have been better with fewer asterisks*
|
| * This could just be the next sentence
| vintagedave wrote:
| Author here. I may have gone overboard with the sidenotes.*
|
| [*] My wife told me the same thing :)
| Niksko wrote:
| Kudos 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 wrote:
| Author 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 wrote:
| I'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 wrote:
| As 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 wrote:
| Oh God, why do that? I bet you could embalm someone with vegemite
| in a pinch.
| hilbert42 wrote:
| I'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 wrote:
| Checking 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!
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| according 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.
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