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It's a food that's so famously polarizing, even its official website asks visitors whether they love it or hate it. Marmite, a yeast extract popular in Britain and several Commonwealth countries, is very much an acquired taste. Whether you're a dyed-in-the-wool Marmite fanatic or someone who's just trying to figure out how to survive eating the stuff, there are tons of tips, tricks, and recipes you can use to make the most of your Marmite experience — with the right eating strategies, you may even start to gain an appreciation for it!
Best Way to Try Marmite for the First Time
Spread a pea-sized amount into a super thin layer on a cracker or piece of toast. Take small bites to acclimate to the potent, salty flavor and add a generous spread of butter if the taste is too strong. Sip water between bites as a palette cleanser.
Ingredients
- Marmite
- Butter (to taste)
- Toast, crackers, or crumpets (optional)
- Marmite
- 2 pieces of Toast (white or wheat)
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
- 5-10 cucumber slices
- Red bell pepper (julienne-cut)
- 2-3 pieces cauliflower or broccoli
- 2 eggs (hard-boiled)
Steps
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Spread Marmite very sparingly. In Britain and other places where Marmite is popular, it's often eaten as a spread on toast, crackers, and other baked bread products. Since Marmite has such a strong salty, yeasty taste, it's usually eaten in small quantities even by its fans. If you're using your Marmite as a spread, rather than using a full spoonful of it like you might for jam or peanut butter, instead, use a tiny pea-sized amount (like you would for toothpaste).
- Ideally, when you spread this tiny amount of Marmite on your bread, it should leave a paper-thin layer of Marmite — just enough to discolor the bread. You don't want any noticeable "thickness" to the Marmite, as this will give a seriously overpowering taste.
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Mix Marmite with butter (or another spread) to dilute the taste. One of the most common ingredients to combine with Marmite is butter, especially when the Marmite is being used as a spread. Butter's rich, smooth taste pairs well with the strong, salty flavor of Marmite. If you hate Marmite, try applying a generous helping of butter to your bread before or after you spread on the Marmite — the more you use, the less you'll taste the Marmite. [1] X Research source To many, this makes Marmite much more palatable.Advertisement
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Take small bites. Getting used to eating Marmite is like the old saying about how to boil a frog — if you drop a frog into a pot of hot water, it will jump out, but if you drop it into a pot of lukewarm water and slowly increase the heat, it won't know anything's wrong until it's too late! [2] X Research source Rather than trying to wolf down your Marmite in a few huge bites, instead, take small nibbles to begin. Gradually, as you make progress, the strong, salty taste should become more bearable.
- If you're having a hard time swallowing even small bites of your Marmite spread, try moving each bite carefully to the back of your mouth so that you can swallow it without much chewing. This should minimize the amount you have to taste the Marmite, but be careful — you'll need to take small bites to be able to swallow them without choking.
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Take big drinks with each bite. To keep the overpowering taste of Marmite under control, try taking a drink after each bite of Marmite you take. The drink will act as a chaser — the more you sip, the less you'll taste the Marmite and the quicker the taste will leave your mouth.
- Plain, ordinary tap water is a good zero-calorie chaser, but if you really hate the taste of Marmite, you may want to consider a stronger-tasting beverage. After each bite, try drinking a swig of your favorite soft drink, or, if you're old enough, a stiff cocktail. The strong flavors of these beverages should help "drown out" the Marmite taste.
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Try not to smell Marmite before you eat it. The senses of taste and smell closely interact with each other to produce the "effect" that you experience when eating food. The way something smells can affect the way it tastes to you (and vice versa). [3] X Research source If you hate the taste of Marmite, there's a very good chance you won't care for its smell, either. In this case, try your hardest not to smell the Marmite as you eat it. Usually, the taste, though still strong, will be a little less intense if you make an effort to hold your breath until the Marmite has been swallowed (or nearly so).
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Pair Marmite with strong-tasting foods to minimize its taste. Perhaps the single easiest way to make Marmite more manageable is to simply not make it the central feature of your dish. Pairing Marmite with other foods (especially ones with distinctive, powerful flavors of their own) can make it much more palatable. Though you may never enjoy Marmite by itself, you may even find that you enjoy it when paired with other foods or used as a minor ingredient in a large recipe!
- There's no "wrong" way to eat Marmite — any food you enjoy it with is fair game. Just a few foods that some Marmite fans enjoy pairing their favorite yeasty spread with are eggs, cheese, meat, seafood, apricots, marmalade, and more! [4] X Research source
- In the next section, we'll explore a few more flavorful Marmite combinations. Feel free to use any of them as you see fit, or make your own!
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Add Marmite to soups and stews for savory flavor. In small quantities, Marmite can give soups, stews, and other hearty liquid dishes a rich, savory flavor (and also works great as a browning agent). For instance, try mixing a spoonful of Marmite into a pot of French onion soup in place of beef stock — the flavor of the finished soup goes great with bread and cheese, just like ordinary Marmite. [5] X Research source
- In general, you can usually get away with substituting Marmite mixed with water, your favorite vegetables, and a little oil for beef broth. This can allow you to make great-tasting vegetarian versions of all your favorite carnivorous soups and stews.
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Pair Marmite with cheeses. Many Marmite fans agree: the spread pairs deliciously with a wide variety of cheeses. Sharp cheddar is an especially great choice — the salty, yeasty flavor of the Marmite enhances the "sharpness" of the cheese, making for a bold-flavored (but tasty) combination. Try adding a few slices of cheese to standard Marmite and butter toast for a satisfying breakfast. [6] X Research source
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Use Marmite as a glaze for roast meats. Though it may sound odd, Marmite can be a tasty ingredient to include in glazes and sauces for meat dishes. Used correctly, Marmite can give the outer "crust" of roasted meats, poultry, and seafood a rich, distinct "umami" (savory) flavor. Try painting a light mixture of melted butter and Marmite over a whole roasted chicken for a savory treat — you should only need a spoonful or two to cover it.
- If you use Marmite as a meat glaze, you may want to forego sprinkling salt from the salt shaker on your meat, especially if you need to be careful about your sodium intake. Marmite has a very high salt content — it's more than 10% salt by mass! [7] X Research source
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Use Marmite sparingly on spaghetti. Believe it or not, some people not only eat their spaghetti with Marmite — they love it. If you're willing to experiment, try adding a half teaspoon of Marmite to al dente noodles along with a small helping of olive oil! You may want to avoid using fine tomato sauces or cheeses to top your dish until you're positive that you enjoy it!
- Note that some fans of this recipe describe the flavor as being similar to the British snack food "Twiglets". [8] X Research source
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Hard boil two eggs. If you've recently gained an appreciation for Marmite and you're looking to expand your repertoire, try this Marmite-centered sampler dish, which works as a hearty meal on its own and scales easily for larger groups. Start by boiling a few eggs in a pot of water until they're hard boiled. Depending on the size of the eggs, this should take about eight to ten minutes.
- Run cold water over the eggs after they're done cooking. Cooling them down halts the cooking process and prevents them from overcooking. [9] X Research source
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Prepare the vegetables. Next, let's get our vegetables ready for the Marmite. Wash a bell pepper, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, a carrot, and a few clumps of broccoli under running water. Cut each into small bite-size pieces. Any shapes that look appealing are fine, but, for efficiency's sake, you'll probably want to julienne your bell pepper (cut it into skinny strips) and take thin circular slices from your cucumber.
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Make toast . Finally, make a few golden-brown slices of Marmite's most well-known companion dish. You can use white, wheat, or even specialty breads like sourdough and rye here — it's up to you! When the toast is ready, butter it. As noted above, butter and Marmite pair quite well together.
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Plate your ingredients with Marmite in the middle. Arrange your vegetables, eggs, and toast in a circle around the outside of a large plate. Open a jar of Marmite and place it in the center of the dish.
- Don't forget to peel your hard-boiled eggs. If you'd like to use them to hold Marmite like crackers, cut the eggs into quarters or eights to make skinny, curved slices.
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Enjoy the Marmite experience to the fullest! Using a butter knife, put small portions of Marmite on each piece of vegetable or egg before biting in. You can eat the toast without Marmite as a "chaser" to ready your mouth for the next bit piece of Marmite, or, if you're bold, just spread a tiny dollop of Marmite on each piece of bread.
- If you want to, you can even dip your foods directly into the jar of Marmite. Be careful — it's easy to get more Marmite than you intended this way!
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWhat if I have high blood pressure?Community AnswerIf you have high blood pressure you should consume Marmite in moderation, as it contains high levels of sodium (salt), which raises blood pressure very quickly.
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QuestionWhat does marmite do to the body?Community AnswerMarmite is nutritious. It's packed with B vitamins, which are essential for good health. However, as it is also high in salt, don't eat too much of it.
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QuestionWhy do most Americans hate Marmite but love Vegemite?Community AnswerMarmite has a much saltier taste, whereas Vegemite is much milder and some say it tastes like "fake meat".
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Tips
- Marmite and Vegemite go extremely well with cheese.Thanks
- Almost all of the advice in this article works with Vegemite (a similar yeast extract product) as well.Thanks
- Just remember: tiny quantities.Thanks
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Warnings
- Don't overdo it! The strong taste is a turn off if you use too much.Thanks
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References
- ↑ http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1505633/marmite-on-toast
- ↑ http://allaboutfrogs.org/stories/boiled.html
- ↑ http://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/taste/2012/taste-and-smell
- ↑ http://www.yelp.co.uk/topic/london-how-do-you-eat-your-marmite
- ↑ http://www.msmarmitelover.com/2013/03/recipe-marmite-french-onion-soup.html
- ↑ http://www.breadworld.com/Recipe.aspx?id=582
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9504293/Marmite-the-latest-superfood.html
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiglets
- ↑ http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_perfect_hard_boiled_eggs/
About This Article
Article Summary
X
To eat marmite, try spreading a pea-sized amount on some toast or bread. If the taste is too overpowering, mix the marmite with some butter or another spread to dilute it. You can also add some marmite to soup or stew to give it a rich, savory flavor, or pair it with a cheese spread. Also, try spreading some marmite and butter over roasted meats and seafood to create a savory glaze. Some people even enjoy mixing a half teaspoon of marmite in with their spaghetti before eating it. To learn how to make an entire meal that goes great with marmite, scroll down!
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Reader Success Stories
- "Recent rains have reduced my charming balcony into a place of mosquito torment. So while having marmite buttered bread for breakfast this morning I was thrilled to read the gardener's tip that eating marmite repels mosquitoes. Thanks, what a godsend!" ..." more
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"Recent rains have reduced my charming balcony into a place of mosquito torment. So while having marmite buttered bread for breakfast this morning I was thrilled to read the gardener's tip that eating marmite repels mosquitoes. Thanks, what a godsend!"
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"A good tip is not to use too much of the marmite when spreading onto your bread. Less is more!"
"Want to vary what I have on my toast initially, but ideas are good i.e. pasta."
