We All Know It
At our earliest opportunity, we are given a choice: vanilla or chocolate. Sometimes strawberry, but that’s another article.
The Dairy Queen or the flavor of shake or even for-reals ice cream. Binary choices at such an early age.
In bakery and store shelves, there is Vanilla Coke and Vanilla Wafers and Vanilla pudding, cake, icing, soaps, and candles. Vanilla is in so many products, how do they do that. Well, they cheat.
Vanilla Bean Production
Vanilla production is a complicated and detailed process that involved many hands, time, and space. Briefly, here’s the story.
Vanilla is a pod from a tropical orchid which grows famously on Madagascar but also other locations, including Papua New Guinea and Mexico. Regardless of where it grows, the vanilla bean flower requires humans to pollinate the flower. Each bean is the product of human interaction.
Vanilla bean orchids are climbing vines so farmers form loops with the
vines to prevent them from growing out of reach. Then, when the flower appears, it is pollinated. New vines won’t produce a flower for 3 or more years.
The bean may take several months to appear and grow, then had to be hand-picked when just right. During growth, the support trees are kept pruned so the proper amount of light reaches the vines.
The process of pollinating the flower, picking the green vanilla bean to cure them to readiness takes about 1 year.[1]
A Lesson In Supply And Demand
Madagascar regulated the vanilla bean trade until 1994 when it was deregulated. Patricia Rain, the Vanilla Queen, told me “The regulation came with the hope of keeping a consistent supply of vanilla beans over time. The idea was that there are good years and bad years. During good years they should store a portion of the vanilla beans for bad years.”
Since vacuum-packed vanilla beans can be stored for long periods of time, there was an excess of supply and the prices fell. The price remained low for a few years and the inability of all farmers to earn enough to make farming worth it destroyed their crops and burned the vines.
The people spoke with their wallets
In 1999 the prices started to rise again. Then, the market spoke. When a product gets to be expensive a few choices are to be made. Stop buying that expensive product, buy less of that product, or find a substitute for that product.
Vanillin is a naturally occurring compound in vanilla. It is also in wood pulp, such as the kind used in paper manufacturing.
Mother Nature
Madagascar was hit by a few cyclones which did some damage to the trees and vines. This lack of supply certainly did have an impact in price. Additionally, vanilla bean prices can lead to corruption and piracy and then the kinds of evil we’ve seen in the spice trade of the 1600s.
When Vanilla Isn’t Vanilla
Vanillin, as mentioned, is the most common and cheapest of vanilla scents/flavors. So, what, then, is in that bottle in your cupboard? h/t to the Vanilla Queen for the excellent post about the different ways to purchase vanilla.[2]
Pure Vanilla Extract
The USDA and the FDA set Standards Of Identity (SOI) for foods that are sold intrastate. For vanilla extract, that standard for a gallon of extract requires it be “13.35% vanilla bean extractives (10-ounces [sic] of moisture-free solids), 35% alcohol, and the balance in distilled water.”
Alcohol-grain alcohol is the most popular-must be listed as an ingredient, but sugars or caramel colors are not required to be on the label.
Vanilla extract “is labor intensive and costly and the best will be aged for almost two years to complete extraction and stabilize flavor. Quality vanilla extract tastes clean, smooth, naturally sweet, and has a very pleasant aroma. Comparing vanilla extracts is similar to comparing whiskey. Quality varies drastically much like low-end Scotch versus a top-shelf, properly aged product. Short cuts and adulteration are the rule not exceptions.”[3]
Vanilla Flavor
The previously mentioned quantity of vanilla bean extractives are mixed with something other than alcohol, most often propylene glycol. The SOI states that without alcohol the flavor cannot be labeled extract. There have been some allergic reactions to propylene glycol.
With Other Natural Flavors (WONF)
A substitute for vanilla prompted by the cyclones which hit Madagascar in 2000, destroying up to 30% of the crop. What was a promising year was ruined by the storms? To fill the gap of vanilla flavor, vanillin, one of over 300 compounds in vanilla and the one which is almost 25% of the aroma, was found in other sources, including paper pulp. “Today, about 85 percent of vanillin comes from guaiacol that’s synthesized from petrochemicals.”[4]
Natural Flavors
The natural flavor of vanilla is mixed with natural flavor from other plants that bear much of the vanilla flavor but not the price.
Imitation Vanilla
Proper vanilla has the brown hues we are used to seeing. If the ingredient you are using is clear, it is imitation and “100% synthetic vanillin.”[5]
The Good Stuff
The high price of vanilla can be a consideration, but when you think about how little you use and how infrequent, at least at home, it is well worth the cost. The good stuff will last longer for less is needed. I’ve found I can halve the quantity asked for and still get delicious baked goods. As with all things, attend to the details. If you are buying online, check the tab for the ingredients. Sad to say, the label will not tell the full story.
Make Your Own Extract
It is not difficult, but it is a wait, to make your own vanilla extract. This is more of an infusion, but the end result is excellent. The above-stated ratios for extract is known as a single fold. Add twice that amount for a double fold. Double fold extract is very potent, costs more to buy the ingredients but is very nice as a gift.
Homemade Vanilla Extract
Easy to do and worth all the wait. Homemade vanilla extract is an excellent gift of love.
Ingredients
Vanilla Extract
- 3 Whole Vanilla Beans, Grade B, Madagascar is possible 5 for double potency
- 1 C Vodka Not top shelf
- 1 Pint Canning jar
Instructions
Make the Extract
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Split the beans lengthwise to expose the tiny specks inside. No need to remove them.
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Pour the vodka over the beans, seal the jar and give it a shake. Store it where you can reach it and every couple of days give it a shake.
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You’ll see the color start to leech out in just a few days and an aroma develop. Vanilla grows in flavor strength so leave the extract to stand for 6 months.
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Strain and pour into 2 ounce sealable jars and make pretty labels. You’ve just make your first Christmas gifts.
Recipe Notes
In dessert making, the seeds would be scraped free of the pod and used for aesthetics. In this extract, the split beans is enough for the shaking over the next months will loosen the seeds. They do make a pretty addition to all creations, solid or liquid.
Of all yumminess vanilla, perhaps the best is the one which started this: vanilla ice cream. Ice cream is a carefully and specifically frozen sauce or custard. Most popularly among chefs is Crème Anglaise, a French sauce which is a very good dessert sauce all by itself or an excellent ice cream base or, when baked in shallow dishes in a water bath, the custard base for crème brûlée.
Crème Anglaise isn’t hard to do, but does require paying attention. There is a moment when the egg/milk mixture is just find and the very next moment it has curdled and all is likely lost. Making crème Anglaise requires having all of your tools ready and available. This style of organization is called mise en place, or “everything in its place. Organization is very important with pastry and custard work.
Crème Anglaise
A very nice sauce as it stands or the base for a wide variety of ice creams. Bake it in shallow dishes in a water bath until just set for crème brûlée.
Ingredients
Make the sauce
- 8 each Egg yolks
- 3.33 oz (95 g) Granulated sugar
- .3 each Vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
- 3.33 oz (95 g) Granulated sugar Yes, twice sugar
- 1/4 t Salt
- 10.66 oz Whole milk
- 10.66 oz Half and half
Tools for the job
- 1 each Wire whisk
- 1 each Wooden spoon
- 1 each Rubber scraper (spatula)
- 1 each Ladle
- 1 4 qt Sauce pan
- 1 each Instant read thermometer
- 1 each Stainless steel bowl
- 1 each Straight sided metal container
- 1 each Fine mesh strainer
- Lots of ice
- 1 each Large pot
Instructions
Make the sauce
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Combine the half and half, milk, sugar, salt and vanilla pod and beans into a pot. Bring the cream mix to a boil but attend to the pot. Dairy has an unhappy tendency to boil over magnificently making a huge mess, and bad smell and a waste of ingredients. When the cream comes just to the boil, remove the pot, cover or seal with plastic wrap and let stand 20 minutes.
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When the time has passed, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in the stainless steel bowl until the egg/sugar turns thick and a lemon yellow color. Ladle 1/2 a cup of the warm milk into the eggs and slowly whisk that into the eggs. Add another half cup, repeat and then add the remaining milk. Whisk well to ensure all the eggs are into the mixture and return everything to the pan with the milk.
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Place the pan on the burner over medium high heat. Stir with a figure 8 motion inside the pan with the wooden spoon every few stirs, pass the spoon into the sides of the pan. This is the art part of the show. The crème need to be cooked slowly enough to prevent the eggs from curdling, but long enough to make sure they are cooked. That's a fine line. Slow is better than fast here. As the sauce develops a viscosity, the two ways to determine doneness is how the sauce coats the back of the spoon: When you swipe a finger across the back of the sauce covered spoon and the path remains, that is, the sauce does not run into the vacated space, it is almost certainly done. The other method, which is a bit more reliable, is to use the thermometer. Cook the sauce to 180 degrees F. Because the mass of sauce will retain heat, it will continue to increase in temperature even when off the heat. This is where the organization matters.
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Strain the sauce into the straight sided metal container and place that into the sauce pan with ice and add a few cups of water to make the small pan immersed in the ice. Stir the sauce slowly to make sure it is all getting exposed to the cold sides and bringing the temperature down. Also watch the the melting ice doesn't cause the sauce container to tip over into the ice. Trust me, that is not an emotion you want to fell. Trust me.
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When the sauce is cool to the touch, drink it all. No don't; I kid. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the cooler until fully chilled.
Recipe Notes
Much of the art of making crème Anglaise is in the seeing. This video does a very good job of showing and explaining the techniques in the process.
In addition to or in place of the vanilla (What!?) steep herb stems such as mint or thyme or lavender with the milk. You can add spices such as cardamom pods or saffron for a special touch.
[1] https://www.foodnonfiction.com/episodes/item/18-52-the-price-of-vanilla
[2] http://vanillaqueen.com/differences-pure-vanilla-extract-vanilla-flavor-imitation-vanilla/
[3] https://www.edenfoods.com/articles/view.php?articles_id=83
[4] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bittersweet-story-vanilla-180962757/
[5] http://vanillaqueen.com/differences-pure-vanilla-extract-vanilla-flavor-imitation-vanilla/