A forgotten ingredient in an old recipe

[Hannes]

In an old recipe dated 1954, I came across "savita." What the hell is it?

The recipe says dissolve 1 tsp of savita in one TBS of hot water. So,
it's water soluble.

It may be misspelled or have transposed letters (but it's NOT sativa).
In one recipe, blintzes came out blitzes. In another tacos came out
tocas. Salvita or Selvita came up blank in google.

OK geezers, dredge your memories. Anybody recall savita? Not even google
knows what it is, it keeps insisting that it is a Hindu girl's name
after a goddess. So don't waste time googling.

[JackPineSavage]

I couldn't find "Savita" but did find "Vegex" (see recipe below). Vegex is
a yeast extract used to add flavor to certain dishes
(http://stores.wholesome-essential.com/Detail.bok?no=472).

http://drpietrorotondi.org/vegetarian-cookery/sauces-and-gravies/

"Health-Brown" Gravy

1 tablespoon Savita or Vegex, 3 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour,
2 tablespoons olive oil, Water
Salt to taste

Place oil in saucepan. Add flour and Vegex or Savita. Stir in water slowly
so as not to lump. Boil until thick, stirring constantly. Mushrooms added to
the above makes a delicious gravy.


"Hannes" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:kqqb6i$5jv$1...@dont-email.me...

[JackPineSavage]

It is a brand name for yeast extract:

http://www.ivu.org/congress/wvc57/souvenir/nutroasts.html

Liquid: *Brown or Yeast Extract Stock; Dissolve in one cup water 1
tablespoon level autolyzed or brewer's yeast extract or powder; or any
liquid flavoured to taste; or milk.
(*This yeast extract goes under many trade names - Vegex, Savita, Marmite,
Yeastrel, Gravyite, Stox, etc. If powder is used, be sure it is Brewer's
Yeast powder.)


It apparently is no longer available in that brand name:

http://www.mybountifulhealth.com/yoganandaarecipes.html

CELERY SAUTE
1 bunch celery cut in 3 inch lengths
1/2 Cup hot water
8 tablespoons butter vegetized salt
Vegex or Savita seasoning
Editor's note: Savita no longer available. There are many vegetable
seasonings on the market.
Melt butter in a frying pan and add enough celery to cover bottom of pan.
Cook slowly and turn frequently until the celery is browned and tender. (Do
not overcook.) Add hot water mixed with about 1 teaspoon Vegex, cook 5
minutes and serve.


"JackPineSavage" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:b3bqun...@mid.individual.net...

[GLOBALIST]

On Sunday, June 30, 2013 5:29:58 PM UTC-5, Hannes wrote:
> In an old recipe dated 1954, I came across "savita." What the hell is it? The recipe says dissolve 1 tsp of savita in one TBS of hot water. So, it's water soluble. It may be misspelled or have transposed letters (but it's NOT sativa). In one recipe, blintzes came out blitzes. In another tacos came out tocas. Salvita or Selvita came up blank in google. OK geezers, dredge your memories. Anybody recall savita? Not even google knows what it is, it keeps insisting that it is a Hindu girl's name after a goddess. So don't waste time googling.

Is savita that So American leaf that is suppose to taste sweeter
than sugar? Just guessing, because there is a new sweetner out
composed of such a plant.

[GLOBALIST]

Opps this is what I was thinking of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

[awouk]

the name is from india.

from google:

Question: What is "savita"?

[48]Moon
July 3, 2010
I have an older cookbook, and one of the recipes calls for 1/2 tsp of "savita".
Anyone know what that refers to? I have searched all over the interwebs, and
came up dry. TIA!

Answers

[50]Permalink Phil
September 10, 2011

It appears to be like bullion powder?
The joy of cooking has multiple references to it .. one in particular is "add to
this 1/2 teaspoon of Savita, or 1 beef cube" to me meaning that a beef bullion
cube was a perfectly acceptable substitute

Searching for "Savita 1931" gave me a few news paper articles of which this one

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yvgoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kmcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6803,1710
858&dq=savita+1931&hl=en

It seems to be some seasoning product that was common back in the 1930's.. and
was sold as beneficial to ones health.. but has since gone the way of the dodo
probably something as simple as a "house seasoning" like a combo of salt, garlic
powder, pepper, onion powder, etc etc


Chris Paulk's picture
[52]Permalink [53]Chris Paulk
July 3, 2010

There is a medicinal form of Sevita which is basically alfalfa. It helps to
alleviate stomach ailments including peptic ulcers, & improves appetite,
relieves urinary and bowel disorders, eliminates retained water. Medicago
Sevita. What is the recipe for? you can probably successfully substitute
parsley, epazote or mint. All three will have somewhat the same taste profile
and help with the same medical ailments and give you a similar taste & end
product.

--
`The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to
be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.' -Lord Acton
"to email me, delete blackhole from my return address

[Hannes]

Thanks all. From JackPineSavage's response and yours, my guess is that
savita is a vegetarian yeast extract, probably like Marmite today. I
think the Brits are fond of Marmite.

And my goodness, the name itself probably WAS after the Hindu goddess
Sativa.

[rumpelstiltskin]

On Mon, 01 Jul 2013 16:37:07 -0500, Hannes <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
<snip>

>Thanks all. From JackPineSavage's response and yours, my guess is that
>savita is a vegetarian yeast extract, probably like Marmite today. I
>think the Brits are fond of Marmite.

Yes I am! I have a bottle around still, though I rarely use it
because it's best on bread and I rarely eat bread anymore,
except for the bread base of take-out-pizza but it doesn't
seem a good idea to me to add marmite to pizza.

The Australians are fond of Vegemite. When my Aussie
roomie went back to Oz, he left a bottle of Vegemite with a
porcelain kangaroo on top of it in his room. That was a nice
gesture, and entertaining, but it turns out I don't like Vegemite
nearly as much as Marmite.

I just took a smidgeon of the Marmite, scooping a tiny bit
out of the jar on the back-end of a fork. The taste is very
pleasant but so powerful that a smidgeon is all you need.
I've probably had that jar 10 years or more, but I think that
if you found a jar of Marmite in a pharaoh's tomb and opened
it up, it would still be OK and still be scrumptious. I looked
for the porcelain kangaroo too, which I haven't seen in a
long time, but didn't find it. I'm sure I didn't break it because
I would have remembered if I had.

http://tinyurl.com/mayv5gr

That page mentions Bovril as a "related search". I
remember hearing about Bovril often, probably as a kid, in
the old country, but I don't think I've ever tasted it.

Unlike nearly everything else, the price of Marmite doesn't
seem to have gone up. I remember paying about $5 years
ago at Cost Plus for the 125g jar I have now, which is still
nearly full since so little of it is needed for a pleasant taste
experience.

[stephen...@gmail.com]

Savita was a yeast product rich in B1 developed in Switzerland or Germany post WW1. Recommended by Dr. Kellogg of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. His subsidary company the Battle Creek Food Company repackaged and marketed the product as Savita. Savita was distributed in NYC by Foltis Fischer Corporation restaurants and retail shops.

See: http://www.jta.org/1934/05/08/archive/savita-products-german-made-scrapped-by-foltis-fischer-co

OEM is Cenovis. You can read history here:

http://www.cenovis.ch/de/tradition/

You will find Salvita mentioned in "Healthy Living" guides and cook books from Dr. Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium (or San for short)

http://books.google.com/books?id=bODhAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions

See: History http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/john_kellogg_and_battle_creek_foods.php

National Geographic Ad: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/foods-that-build-health-can-be-palate-tempting/

A comparison of available products found here:

http://justhungry.com/2006/11/marmite_vegemite_andcenovis_a.html

You can order Cenovis online for $56 US but with shipping expect $126 (12/15/2013)

Another beer related product from Michigan now manufactured by BioSavita.

See: http://biosavita.com/category/articles/

Company’s Beer-Yeast-to-Cancer Drug Effort Wins Top Entrepreneur Award Crain’s Detroit Business; June 19, 2013

[chatnoir]

As I recall, this was discussed a while ago! Not sure it was this group

[mamac...@gmail.com]

Interesting historical note: Savita was blacklisted in New York in 1934:

http://www.jta.org/1934/05/08/archive/savita-products-german-made-scrapped-by-foltis-fischer-co

[GLOBALIST]

Sort of like the silly-ass "Freedom fries", after France
refused to bomb Iraq.

[islander]

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.retirement/2013-12/msg02670.html

[jeanwle...@gmail.com]

Thirty years ago in Baton Rouge, Icould buy it in the store. It was black and very much like tar. But dissolved in sauces and stew, it really had a great flavor. I am looking for it now if anyone has any idea where to get it.

[ste...@aol.com]

Savita was an ingredient of a gravy my mother served when she made a meat-free loaf to accommodate vegetarian dinner guests in our home for Sabbath dinner. I was raised Seventh-day Adventist. For those unfamiliar with this denomination, here's some background. Seventh-day Adventists are a Christian denomination that worships in church on Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as the denomination believes is required by the fourth commandment. The ten commandments are, of course, a product of the Old Testament. Adherence to Old Testament text is a prominent feature of fundamentalist denominations, and the SDA theology qualifies as broadly fundamentalist.

Another fundamentalist church that worships on Saturday would be the Seventh-day Baptists, and there are others. The Jewish religion came by their Sabbath worship, from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday, on the same textual grounds long before there was any such thing as a Seventh-day Adventist or, for that matter, a Christian.

I'll get to what may serve as leads in the search for information about Savita after I finish outlining what sets them apart from other fundamentalist churches. The main difference between Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh-day Baptists is that the principal and most important founder of the SDA church was a woman named Ellen White, whom Adventists believe was inspired by God to have thousands of "visions" and to write many volumes of guidance for the church. In practical terms, she was treated like a prophet and, revered by many on that basis, though she made no outright claim to be a prophet.

I would say the most damaging fact about Ellen White lies in accusations that she copied extensively from earlier books in her own writing, without giving any hint that she was doing so. In the 1970s, extensive examples began to be found of prose White had lifted nearly word-for-word from other writers of her era. The church has made major efforts to refute these charges. I do not find them persuasive. I take this view after comparing many passages in her works that first appeared in other published works. Again and again, these passages were too similar, in my view as a published writer, not to have been plagiarized This is also evident in the sequence or order in which points asserted in the presentation followed that of earlier works by other writers. As for the prose itself, it is too often the same, word for word or nearly so---i.e., with the sorts of cosmetic alterations not affecting the gist or the sequence. This practice of "changing happy to glad" is typical of plagiarists. That these passages occurred in _earlier_ works by other writers who were not Adventists (and were, therefore, less likely to be seen or known of by White's readers) is dispositive. Much of the denomination's effort to refute charges of plagiarism has taken the form of denying it <i>and then excusing and defending it in various ways</i>. As a writer, that she clearly did copy from the works of others without giving any indication she had done so is the heart of the issue. Having been raised Adventist, I can only wince when bold denials turn shameful when wallowing in their wake of defenses, excuses, and explanations.

As to searching for more information on the word "Savita," I would offer that White wrote extensively in support of a vegetarian diet. During my childhood and adolescence in the fifties and sixties, I was aware of a number of Adventist companies that produced vegetarian foods in forms similar to meat products. For example, "Vegelinks" were made to look like hot dogs. Savita gravy may have been among these products. Company names that spring to mind include the "Cedar Lake" and "Loma Linda" brands. I believe the denomination has since sold all such Adventist companies to mainstream producers and sellers of vegetarian foods. I hope this results in you finding more information about Savita, itself. If not, at least I've been able to provide a context for how it was used as an adjunct to vegetarian foods processed from wheat germ and soy proteins.