About Vanilla Beans
Source of Recipe
Darlene
About Vanilla Beans
Categories: Information, Vanilla
Yield: 1 Info file
Information only
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.
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