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Thursday 31 January 2019

Vegemite

Vegemite is an Australian-made food made from leftover brewers' yeast extract used for making beer.


It was developed by an Australian chemist named Dr Cyril P Callister at Fred Walker & Co in Melbourne in 1922. He'd been asked to come up with a new spread following the disruption of British Marmite imports after World War I.

Callister developed the new spread from leftover brewers' yeast extract and blended it with ingredients like celery, onion, salt, and a few secret ones.

Fred Walker & Co ran a competition inviting the public to dream up a name for its new spread. A prize of fifty pounds for finalists guaranteed heaps of entries and from the pile a name was pulled by Fred Walker's daughter, Sheilah: "Vegemite".


In 1935, customers were given a free jar of Vegemite with every Fred Walker & Co product purchased, and the popularity of the spread started to grow after this promotion.

Vegemite was officially endorsed by the British Medical Association as a rich source of B vitamins in 1939. The success of the nutritious spread was boosted during the Second World War when it was chosen to be included in Australian Army ration packs. By the late 1940s vegemite was used in nine out of ten Australian homes.

Vegemite on toast. By Tristanb 

Vegemite is generally used as a spread for sandwiches, toast, crumpets and cracker biscuits and also as a filling for pastries.

Vegemite is said to have naturally occurring anti-bacterial properties, which means you can use it to disinfect and clean anything and everything from cutting boards to pots and pans.

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