About Vanilla Beans

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Information from the 1996 Old Farmer's Almanac, "What You Can Eat To
Achieve True Peace of Mind", by Ken Haedrich
The vanilla orchid is a member of the plant family known as Orchidaceae and
is the only orchid that produces edible fruit.  The beans grow on a thick
vine that flourishes in warm, moist climates within 25 degrees of the
equator.  The vanilla plant begins to bear fruit when it is three or four
years old.  Eight to nine months after pollination, the beans are golden
yellow and ready for harvest and curing.
It takes about five to six pounds of green, freshly picked vanilla beans to
make one pound of properly cured beans.  There are basically two ways to
cure the beans:  in the sun or over a fire.  Using the solar method, beans
are spread in the hot sun by day and wrapped in blankets and placed in
wooden boxes by night.  The sweating process is repeated over and over for
six months, until the beans have lost up to 80 percent of their moisture
content.  This method produces superior results and is used in Madascar,
Mexico, the former Bourbon Islands, Tonga, and Tahiti.
The wood-fire curing method, used in Indonesia and Bali, takes only two or
three weeks, but produces a dry, brittle bean with a smoky flavor,
generally considered inferior.
When you buy a vanilla bean at your market, the black, oily, smooth pod
you're buying is a cured bean.  When you purchase a bottle of pure vanilla
extract, you're buying beans whose flavor components have been dissolved in
a solution of water and alcohol.  By law, pure vanilla extract must contain
at least 35 percent alcohol by volume. Anything less is labeled a flavor.
Pure vanilla extracts come in a variety of folds, or strengths. The Food
and Drug Administration has established that a fold of vanilla is the
extractive matter of 13.35 ounces of vanilla beans to a gallon of liquid.
Strong, pure extracts, such as four-fold, are primarily used in mass food
production.
What about imitation vanilla? ~----------------------------
Not only is pure vanilla expensive, but demand also far exceeds the world's
supply of the real thing.  Stepping in to fill the void is the chemist, who
has come up with a variety of imitations made from synthetic vanillin, the
organic component that gives vanilla its distinctive flavor and fragrance.
Most synthetic vanillin is a byproduct of the paper industry, made by
cooking and treating wood-pulp effluent. But since vanillin is only one of
more than 150 flavor and fragrance compounds found in pure vanilla, the
chemist has yet to match the subtlety with which Mother Nature has endowed
the real thing.
How to tell a good bean when you see one.
~----------------------------------------
Quality is key.  To truly experience all the flavor and fragrance vanilla
has to offer, you have to seek out quality beans and extracts. Generally
speaking, look for beans that are supple and aromatic. Tahitian beans are
moister and relatively short and plump, with thin skins and a floral aroma.
Bourbon beans (so called because they originate in Madagascar, Reunion, and
the Comoros, formerly known as the Bourbon Islands) are slightly dryer,
contain more natural vanillin, and have thick skins (the flavor has nothing
to do with bourbon whiskey.) Stay away from dry, brittle, or smoky-smelling
beans.  Depending upon quality and variety, single vanilla beans retail
from about $1.50 to $10 apiece.  Vanilla beans should be kept at room
temperature in an airtight container.  Don't refrigerate them or they may
develop mold.  Vanilla beans last up to two years.
Especially if you cook with it often, it is more economical to buy pure
vanilla extract by the pint, or even the quart, and share it with a friend.
The best pure extracts contain no caramel and artificial color and little
or no sugar.  Store extract at room temperature, tightly closed. It will
keep up to five years.
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #313
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 00:32:43 GMT
From: netdir@cyberspc.mb.ca (S.Pickell)

A Message from our Provider:

“You think life is full of surprises? Wait till you die!”