Q - for a naive Marmite/Bovril person - what if any is the difference between the two - i thought they were identical except for brand name - but i don't really know anything 'bout that!

OK, I toally "get" the subtle and sublime differences between marmite and vegamite, but the Bovril I know in Canada comes in a bottle and is of a consistency which would (I think) limit its use to diluting with hot water to form a beverage. My(Scots) relatives use Bovril as a stew /gravy browner. But, surely, it is too soggy to spread on toast?

Marmite and vegemite definitely taste different, but I don't have vegemite in the house so I can't go and taste them to define how. They've recently introduced a squeezy marmite bottle so hopefully that'll reduce the stickiness you get with jars.

As a student one of my favourite meals was pasta with a tin of chopped tomatoes and marmite stirred through the lot. I think I may have eaten this for an entire week towards the end of one term when money was running out.

Bovril and marmite are totally different, Bovril is supposed to be beef-flavoured. Marmite is a yeast spread.

Required sustenance at any football match in the UK - hot Bovril drink. In Scotland usually accompanied by a meat pie. I'm never sure what kind of meat- some football grounds supply better quality pies than others - I'm sure there's a web site on the subject!. Not sure what they eat at English grounds.

"Not sure what they eat at English grounds"

Their young. Or if lucky, their opponents'.

Isn't mutton pie <i>de rigueur</i> everywhere in Scotland?

I suspect that the great majority of us who enjoy Marmite were brought up eating it.

I adore it spread thinly on a well buttered piece of a good quality crusty bread.

But none of the Americans I've tried to convince to eat the stuff have ever had any other reaction than utter disgust.

My wife, even after 35+ years of marriage, will actually leave the table when I open the jar, so offensive does she find just the odour of Marmite.

FlannerUK -
You might be right but no-one I know calls them 'Mutton' pies. It's either a 'pie' or an 'ashet' pie i.e. individual steak pie.
Do you add salt to your Bovril?

Come along, chas, even I've heard of &quot;Who ate all the pies?&quot;.

I must say, I've never really thought of Marmite on my breakfast toast: I like it on crumpets at teatime, or adding a bit of extra zing to cheese on toast. But as they cannily stressed in their own adverts, you either love it or hate it.

Yikes ! I'm not British but I went to British Boarding school for 11 years and all this talk of marmite and bovril sandwiches brings memories flooding back like a thump to the head.

These sandwiches (marmite, and yes buttered bread and bovril) were our twice-a-week staple for 'elevenses', but as hungry 9 and 10 year olds we'd eat anything in set front of us and quite enjoyed them as I recall.
Other days, it was peanut butter sandwiches, cheese spread sammys, and on Fridays (in true catholic spirit), Fish paste sandwiches (mackrel and tomato, sardine, etc.). Whatever happened to good old Shippams pastes and spreads ? Are they still around ?

Chas:

I spent a decade flogging food to the Scots. Everywhere from Hawick to Inverness, including estates round Glasgow few other non-Scots (and equally few Scots) ever got out of alive.

No-one ever talked about ashets. Steak pies. Bridies. Pies. Mince pies. Even Scotch pies.

But ashets?

Of course I don'r add salt to Bovril. That'd be unhealthy. But I always added salt to a nice mug of Oxo.

Flanneur,

My mum - a Lanarkshire Girl calls them ashet pies. She tells me it's from the french assiette - ie a pie that comes with a plate (now a foil tin). The Auld Alliance and all that.

In the news today - Bovril is going back to it's beef recipe. Here's the news link. For all you Bovril munching heathens please note the opening words of the second paragraph.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/69257.html

French?

A bit posh for Easterhouse.

Apparently not too posh for Larkhall though.