I spread it on bread without butter just to save the calories that the butter would have added. And I liked it! I can believe that your suggestion of adding it to a bland casserole or gravy – or perhaps stew? – would spice it up beautifully. And I’m surprised so many people have an issue with me having bought it in a tube rather than a jar. How can that change the flavor of it? I really liked Vegemite, honestly. I know it’s sold in other parts of the world (in the UAE, for example, I saw it). I might just buy it and eat it again some day.

Now the important bits. Vegemite is extremely high in the vitamin B group. I have read that Americans take vitamin B supplements during the mosquito season to keep the little beggars at bay. Till the age of 45 I had never been bitten by a mosquito but at that age I started putting on weight so I cut out eating bread to help in the weight loss. No bread meant nowhere to spread the Vegemite so it dropped out of the diet. Lo & behold the mozzies had a field day with me. Supplementing with vitamin B fixed the problem.

If you make a stew, casserole or gravy and the flavour is a bit bland stick a teaspoon of Vegemite in and taste the difference.

Vegemite on toast without butter? Never … who told you that?

Vegemite and cheese are perfect flavour partners but not blended together into a paste … Sacrilege!

Vegemite in a tube … What on earth were they thinking?

Beginners should only have the thinnest smear of Vegemite … old seasoned campaigners like me can’t spread it thick enough.

Vegemite is not for the faint hearted … particularly for those whose staple diet is sugar based as in most Western nations. Australian children are generally exposed to Vegemite very early on and thus begins a very healthy life long love affair with the magic paste.

Real Australians don’t even consider that there are any substitutes or alternatives to Vegemite … that is well left to others.

Enjoy!

“Brown” to me was umami, and vegemite is very very “brown”.