What's one thing that Australians love to eat on their toast for breakfast?
An umami flavoured, vitamin B-packed, tar-black salty spread – Vegemite.
This spread is said to be found in 9 out of 10 homes in Australia,
and is a point of national pride.
But how was this saliferous spread created?
How did it become so popular? And what does it taste like?
Our story begins in the late 19th century with this guy, Justus von Liebig.
Old mate Justus discovered that yeast extract left over from brewing beer could be concentrated
down into something that was somewhat edible.
A few years later in 1902 in Burton upon Trent, England – the Marmite Extract company was
formed which produced 'Marmite', an edible salty yeast paste developed from Justus’
discovery.
Sales of Marmite were pretty good, and in 1908 the Sanitarium Health Food Company
(known today for another iconic Aussie breakfast food) bought the rights to distribute Marmite
in New Zealand and Australia.
During World War 1 the supply of Marmite to Australia dried up. So in 1922 in Melbourne,
Australia, a man called Fred Walker commissioned the chemist Cyril Callister to come up with
an alternate salty yeast spread.
Calister got to work using the leftover yeast extracts from the local Carlton and United Breweries.
After several months, he perfected his recipe, using onion and celery extracts.
And loads of salt. But the invention needed a name!
So in 1923 a competition was run to name the new spread.
The winning entry was pulled from a hat and Vegemite was born.
And then, nearly tanked.
Since the War coming to an end, the original Marmite was back on shelves, and Australians
were wary of the new kid on the block. In 1928, following dwindling sales, and in
one of the most cringe-inducing marketing fails known to humankind, Walker rebranded
Vegemite as... Parwill. (because if Marmite, Parwill)
The experiment was short-lived – although this wouldn’t be the last time Vegemite
was the victim of a branding SNAFU. After the un-rebrand, Walker decided to give the
spread away free with processed cheese. This catapulted the popularity of Vegemite because
hey, who doesn't like free stuff? A few years later, Vegemite was added to the ration packs
for Australian soldiers during world war 2. Vegemite quickly became a patriotic symbol
during wartime, and this further boosted its popularity back home.
Kraft Foods eventually took over control of vegemite, and manufactured it for over 80 years.
But in January 2017, Vegemite's owners became Australian once again when Bega Cheese
acquired Vegemite as part of a $460million deal with Kraft. In 2018, Vegemite is still
being produced in Melbourne, Australia.
So what does this delicious, black, sticky paste called Vegemite taste like?
Well, salty. Vegemite has a salt content of approximately 8.6%. for comparison, the average
salinity of sea water, is 3.5%. Vegemite is also high in glutamic acid which
gives it a rich umami flavour. (If you don’t know what umami is, it's that deep savoury
flavour that parmesan cheese, miso soup and MSG have in common.
In 2011, US President Obama had this to say about vegemite.. "it's horrible … it's like
a quasi-vegetable by-product paste that you smear on your toast for breakfast", but Australians
enjoy this beloved spread in multiple ways. The most common way is on toast with loads
of butter and a thin… thin layer of vegemite on top.
Other ways include in a sandwich with cheese, with avocado on toast, or baked
into a cheesy scroll.
And finally, vegemite has spawned many branded spin-offs, the most noteworthy of which was
in 2015, when Cadbury created an unbelievably strange and weirdly delicious bar of chocolate
that was filled with Vegemite-flavoured caramel. Needless to say this experiment was divisive
and short-lived, but demonstrated the versatility of this Australian staple.
So that's the story of Vegemite, Australia's mighty black spread with a colourful intercontinental
history.
I've linked some Vegemite related videos in the description
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Thanks for watching.