Vanilla (spice)

In antiquity, vanilla pods were used as money. During the reign of Emperor Montezuma, the Aztecs collected taxes on vanilla pods.

In Spain , Italy , Austria, vanilla is known from the middle of the XVI century. In the rest of Europe - from the beginning of the XIX century.

Until 1841, vanilla was cultivated exclusively in Mexico, where the plant was pollinated by endemic melypon bees . Outside its homeland, vanilla grew, but the pods on it were not tied ^[1] . The situation changed in 1841, when a twelve-year-old black slave from Reunion Island , Edmond Albus , found a method of artificial pollination of vanilla. Thanks to its discovery, valuable spice has become widely available outside of Mexico.

The technology of production of this spice is quite complicated. At the first stage, immature fruits are collected and immersed for 20 seconds in hot water (80-85 ° C), thus carrying out a kind of short-term blanching . Then the fruit is fermented at a temperature of 60 ° C for a week. Only after fermentation, vanilla acquires a distinctive aroma and brown color. After this, the spice is dried in the shade for several months in the open air. After the white bloom appears on the pods, it is believed that the spice is ready for use.

The quality of vanilla depends on many factors, ranging from the botanical type of vine, from which it is obtained, and ending with the conditions of fermentation and drying. Therefore, in world practice, vanilla is divided into 8 grades in quality.

Good quality vanilla pods are usually 10-20 centimeters long, soft, elastic, rounded, oily to the touch, dark brown or almost black. The best varieties are covered with bloom of whitish crystals. With proper storage, the persistence of vanilla aroma is amazing. There are cases of preservation of all properties after 36 years from the date of production. Due to improper storage or preparation, the pods lose their elasticity, become brittle, crack, open and lose color, become light colored. Such vanilla has already lost half its qualities. Poor quality grades are quickly exhaled and destroyed, especially in adverse conditions. Vanilla varieties with heliotrope aroma instead of vanillin are also less valuable. In them the carrier of aroma is piperonal ( heliotropin ).

Vanilla to this day is one of the most expensive spices on the world market. This resulted in both a complex and lengthy technological process of its processing, and the complexity of growing vanilla as a culture (the need for artificial pollination - only half of the flowers will bear fruit). The high cost of this spice led to the synthesis of its artificial substitute - vanillin . But, as with all substitutes, it was not possible to completely repeat the subtlety and durability of real vanilla - due to the presence of minor odor components due to heliotropin and other vanilla essential oil components.

The low cost of “natural- identical ” flavors, mainly vanilla and ethyl vanillin, strongly influences the production of natural vanilla.

Currently, the use of natural vanilla is small due to the displacement of cheap synthetic vanilla.

Natural vanilla is sold in the form of whole pods, powder, or alcoholic extract containing 35% ethanol .

Among all the spices, vanilla - partly because of its price, partly because of its properties - occupies a privileged place. Natural vanilla goes on flavoring only the most expensive confectionery and sweet dishes, in particular, chocolate and cocoa products, biscuits and products from biscuit dough, creams, ice cream, nut cookies. In the recipe of other sweet dishes ( compotes , jellies , mousses , souffles , parfaits , puddings , cottage cheese pastes , some types of preserves ), vanillin is more often used, although some of the aromatic properties of the finished product are lost.

In products subjected to heat treatment, vanilla is introduced either directly in front of it (in the dough ) or immediately after the dish has not cooled (in puddings, souffles, compotes, preserves, etc.). In cold dishes (curd pastes) - after cooking. In products requiring impregnation (biscuits, cakes ), vanilla is introduced in the form of vanilla syrup - after baking.

For the introduction of vanilla in the product it is thoroughly ground with powdered sugar until a homogeneous mass. Then, the vanilla sugar is mixed into the dough or sprinkled on the finished product. Consumption rates are small. When calculated per serving, consumption is approximately ¹ ⁄ ₂₀ of the stick. When calculating per kilogram of products embedded in the dough, ¹ ⁄ ₄ sticks. When cooking vanilla sugar, one stick of vanilla is enough for a pound of sugar.

To obtain vanilla sugar, suitable for sprinkling some confectionery, it is sufficient and simple to store vanilla sticks together with powdered sugar in a single jar. Sugar is saturated with a strong vanilla smell.

Some researchers argue that the smell of vanilla "has stimulating properties, relieves tension and stress" ^[2] .

• Vanilla, in medicine // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 add.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• V. V. Pokhlebkin . All about spices. - M., Eksmo, 2011. - ISBN 5-699-42298-6
• N. Ruchkina. Vanilla // Chemistry and life. - 2011. - № 1 .
• Tim Ecott. Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Luscious Substance . - Penguin UK, 2005.
• Daphna Havkin-Frenkel, Faith C. Belanger. Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology . - John Wiley & Sons, 2010. - 360 p.