For a long while now there's a been a long running debate over Marmite " you either love it or hate it". Well personally I love it and have done for as long as I can remember. The only thing is its quite expensive for a tiny pot. On my last shopping trip to Tesco I noticed they do their own brand called Yeast Extract. It costs £1.89 for a 240g jar, a similar sized jar of Marmite is about 80p dearer.

Tesco Yeast Extract is sold in a dark brown glass jar with a yellow screw top lid. The label is red and yellow and has Tesco Yeast Extract with added vitamins written on it. It also gives the GDA's which are given per serving, although it doesn't actually state what a serving is. These are:-

Calories 9
Sugar trace
Fat trace
Saturates trace
Salt 0.4g

The back of the label gives the ingredients and a more detailed list of nutritional values. There is also a small nut allergy warning on there. Tesco state that although the Yeast Extract doesn't contain nuts they cannot guarantee that the product hasn't come from a nut free factory. It also informs the customer that this is suitable for vegetarians. Apart from a little re cycling symbol that's all the information the back of the jar gives.

On unscrewing the lid I could see that this looked exactly like Marmite, brown and quite shiny. Its set enough to scoop from the jar but not too solid so it spreads nicely. Tesco Yeast Extract has a smell and taste that I can only describe as very savoury. I know that doesn't really say anything but I cant really find words to describe it.
It has a very strong flavour so personally I find a very thin scraping of it is all thats needed to give a good bit of flavour. I have my Yeast Extract on bread, toasted and un toasted, crackers, crisp breads and digestive biscuits. Its fabulous added to cheese sandwiches too. It can be used to add flavour to shepherds pies and other meaty dishes. I have never personally tried this but it is lovely added to mashed potato. The only thing I don't like is when its melted into boiling water to make a drink.

Tesco Yeast Extract gets my full recommendation. It tastes exactly the same as Marmite but considerably cheaper. Its versatile and a little gives lots of flavour. So for all those of you that are on the "Love it" side I would definitely recommend giving this one a try.