Marmite

1824 Thomas Gill. The Technical Repository p. 180: XXXV: On the French Marmite, or Pot-au-Feu: and on preparing Bouillon with it My little boy having been ill of a fever for forty days, I have learned from his attendant how to make the celebrated soup (bouillon) of Paris: and finding it to be superior to any that I ever before tasted, I take the liberty to send you the directions necessary to enable any one to prepare this cheap and desirable food. Earthen-pots with covers, made to hold from one to seven pounds of meat, are found in every family. The marmite bought for me was for one-and-a-half pound only: this quantity of lean meat (bœufmaigre), was always part of the leg or shoulder: it was put into the marmite, which was then filled up with cold water, about five pints, and placed on the hearth, close to the wood-fire; and when it began to simmer or boil gently, it threw up a scum, which was carefully taken off from time to time with a spoon, for the space of threequarters of an hour, which perfectly cleansed the meat and water from every impurity.

Required: […] One tablespoonful of nutril or one small teaspoonful of marmite.

Stir a spoonful of marmite into some brown gravy, and pour over the potatoes, etc.

A teaspoonful of marmite, a dessertspoonful of a good brand of cod-liver oil, and two glasses of water between meals, would make the diet complete.

A spoonful of marmite added to soups and gravies after they are cooked improves their flavour.

The treatment of this particular form of anæmia lies in giving vitamin B, a suitable preparation being a teaspoonful of marmite three times a day, together with desiccated gastric mucosa.

I crawled up and retrieved it and, wiping it clean on some leaves, looked at the label. “Marmite,” it read. / “You have beriberi,” he shouted. / “I know,” I replied from the mud. / “Take a spoonful of that a day,” he advised. / “Will it do any good?” / “Might,” he replied, and, returning firmly inside the palisade of the headquarters camp, indicated that the subject was closed. I crawled back to our camp, where I found the guards very cross that I had eluded them. I took a spoonful of marmite and, exhausted, fell asleep.

Only a strong man can cut through the rind, but the inside, firm and juicy, we slice with onion, potato, carrot, parsnip – whatever there is – simmer till tender, then put through the liquidizer, bring to the consistency of cream with stock or milk, add nutmeg or mace as well as pepper and salt; if no stock, I add a spoonful of marmite, and always top of milk or a little cream.