About Vanilla Beans Recipe
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Ingredients : About Vanilla Beans Recipe
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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.
Converted by MC_Buster.
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