Vanilla

“ The vanilla of commerce occurs in the form of fleshy, flexible, stick-like pods, 3 to 8 inches long, and 3/10 to 4/10 of an inch wide, of a compressed cylindrical form, attenuated and hooked at the stalk end. The surface is finely furrowed lengthwise, shining, unctuous, and often beset with an efflorescence of minute colourless crystals. The pod splits lengthwise into two unequal valves, revealing a multitude of minute, shining, hard, black seeds of lenticular form, imbedded in a viscid aromatic juice.
The finest vanilla is the Mexican. ”

“ Flavoring extracts have been called an American specialty; for while they are used considerably by foreign cooks and bakers, ours are much more addicted to their use. The most popular of all the flavoring extracts is vanilla; its home is Mexico, and we take nearly all the vanilla beans harvested there; but that does not cover the demand. Many firms get rich by making [545] imitation vanilla and other flavors. Some of these are strong medicines. The safest place to eat vanilla ice cream is at home where you know it is made of the deliciously fragrant bean and not of coal tar products. ”

“ Certain species of this fruit contain a pulp with a delicious perfume and flavour. Vanilla is principally imported from Mexico. The capsules for export are always picked at perfect maturity. The essence is the form in which it is used generally and most conveniently. Its properties are stimulating. Vanilla is in daily use for ices, chocolates, and flavouring confections generally.
2063.—VELVET CREAM. (Fr.—Crème à la Velouté.)
Ingredients.—1⁄2 a pint of cream, 1⁄2 a gill of water, 1 wineglassful of brandy or sherry, 1 oz. of castor sugar, 1⁄2 an oz. of leaf gelatine. ”

“ Fruit and Flower of Vanilla.
"I think I have found vanilla; or it is something that smells like it, but I did not know that the vanilla was a climber."
"You have found the wild vanilla, the flowers of which have, as you see, disappeared and the bean is the product."
"I have often wondered why it is that we are able to smell or to recognize different odors."
"Smell, like everything else in nature, is produced by vibrations. So is sound, and light, and taste. Each odor has its particular rate of vibration. ”

“ The extract is shaken with a solution of sodium bisulphite, the vanillin then set free with sulphuric acid and the disengaged sulphurous acid removed by a stream of carbon dioxide. The vanillin is then shaken out with ether and on evaporating off the ether, vanillin is left in a pure condition. Busse found by this method in East African vanilla 2·10 percent of vanillin, in the Ceylon 1·48 percent, and in the Tahiti variety from 1·55 to 2·02 percent. In America the so-called vanilla extract, instead of vanilla, is used and it lends itself to adulteration much more easily than natural vanilla. ”

“ The vanilla is used merely to give permanence to the scent on the handkerchief, and this latter body is chosen in preference to extract of musk or ambergris, which would answer the same purpose of giving permanence to the more volatile ingredients; because the vanilla strikes the same key of the olfactory nerve as the orange-blossom, and thus no new idea of a different scent is brought about as the perfume dies off from the handkerchief. ”

“ But the most precious crop here is vanilla, which is both pretty and lucrative, being worth about four dollars a pound. It is a luxuriant creeper, and grows so freely that a branch broken off and falling on the ground takes root of its own accord; and it climbs all over the tall coffee-shrubs, the palms, avocat pear and orange trees, and everything that comes in its way, growing best on living wood, the tendrils thence deriving sustenance. It also flourishes best in unweeded grounds, the roots being thereby kept cool. ”

“ Vanilla Ice Cream.—This favourite ice is easily made. It is needlessly expensive to use the vanilla pod itself. To flavour 1 pint custard a whole pod would have to be boiled in the milk. But, as the bright essence is often wanting in delicacy, and is not unfrequently merely an imitation of vanilla made from deleterious material, it is desirable to have a home-made extract. To make it, cut the pods into very small pieces, put them into a small bottle with 1 tablespoonful brandy to each pod; let them stand for a week or longer, shaking occasionally. ”

“ Vanilla and lemon have an almost universal appeal to the palate, and knowing this, the American cook, like the generation before her, has always seasoned her rice puddings, for instance, with one or the other, just as her apple sauce has invariably been flavored with lemon or nutmeg, her bread pudding with vanilla, and so all along her restricted line. ”

“ They can be detected by their light color and brittleness. Most of the vanilla extracts sold for flavoring purposes are adulterated with Tonka beans and other adulterants, some containing not a particle of vanilla.
The following will make a splendid article, and you know what you are getting without paying high prices for weak extracts put up in deceptive little panel bottles. Dishonest manufacturers never yield a point in their efforts to defraud. ”

“ However, a great many People are prejudiced in favour of Vanilla, and that I may pay a due Deference to their Judgments, I shall employ Vanilla in the Composition of Chocolate, in the best Method and Quantity, as it appears to me; I say, as it appears to me, because there are an infinite Variety of Tastes, and every one expects that we should have regard to his, and one Person is for adding what the other rejects. ”

“ Would that they could all be transported for a while to the orange-groves of Tahiti!
To-day we also passed some large vanilla plantations, in admirable order. The vanilla is a creeper, and is planted at the foot of some shady shrub, up which it climbs and twines among the branches. To economise labour and space, two crops are combined, by training the vanilla over either coffee-bushes or the vermilion-tree, which carries its bright seeds in small pods. ”

“ In case the extract of Vanilla is used, add it just before pouring out on the slab.
VANILLA CARAMELS, No. 2.
Twelve pounds of Sugar, six quarts of good Cream, two Vanilla Beans, and one pound of sweet Butter; cook over a rapid fire to a good Crack; put the Sugar, two quarts of the cream and the beans on the fire; when it boils, add two quarts more of the cream; when it again reaches a boil, add the remaining two quarts; then, as it again comes to a boil, add two heaping spoons of cream of tartar.
MAPLE CARAMELS.
Use six pounds of A Sugar, six pounds of Maple Sugar, and six pounds of glucose ”

“ These capsules or pods were nearly a foot in length, though not much thicker than a swan’s quill. They were a little flattish, wrinkled, and of a yellow colour, and contained inside, instead of beans, a pulpy substance, surrounding a vast quantity of small seeds, like grains of sand. These seeds are the perfumed vanilla so much prized, and which often yield the enormous price of fifty dollars a pound! To preserve these, therefore, was the work of Doña Isidora and Leona; and they understood perfectly how to do it. ”

“ Using egg whites, 2 tablespoons sugar and vanilla, make a meringue. Pile this meringue in peaks on custard, being sure every inch is covered. Bake 20 minutes at 300° F. Delicious hot or cold.
VANILLA WAFERS are so versatile because their delicate flavor blends so well with others. Chocolate, vanilla, lemon or butterscotch pudding can be turned into a special dessert by using alternate layers of VANILLA WAFERS and pudding with a topping of whipped cream sprinkled with ground nuts and garnished with maraschino cherries. ”

“ In marshy bushy places on this journey I saw many plants of the Vanilla planifolia, seldom bearing flowers, and more rarely [226] producing fruit. It has now been satisfactorily determined, that this is the species from which the true Vanilla of commerce is procured. In Mexico it is extensively cultivated for the sake of its fruit, which it yields abundantly; while the plants which have been introduced into the East Indies, and the hot-houses of Europe, though they have frequently produced flowers, have very seldom perfected their fruit. ”

“ Vanilla Sauce.—Boil 1 pint milk with a piece of vanilla and some loaf sugar, take it from the fire and stir into it the yolks of 3 eggs and 2 teaspoonfuls flour; stir it over the fire till thick. Whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff snow with a spoonful of sifted sugar, and at the moment of serving add the snow to the sauce, not broken up entirely, but just dipping partly under it. Other flavourings may be given if preferred—orange peel or lemon, cinnamon or almonds, according to taste. ”

“ The French cook holds no brief against vanilla, and sometimes he flavors his rice pudding with it, but he so guides matters that the very sight or mention of rice pudding does not bring the thought of vanilla to the mind, for with him it may be flavored with pistache or rose or have a geranium leaf baked in it, giving a delightful, indescribable flavor. ”

“ VIOLET PARFAIT—This is made the same as white parfait, using one-third cup of grape juice instead of the boiling water, and adding half a cup of grape juice and the juice of half a lemon to the cream before beating.
VANILLA PARFAIT—Cook a half cup each sugar and water over the fire until it threads. Do not stir after the sugar has dissolved. Beat the whites of three eggs until very stiff, pour the sirup slowly over it, beating constantly. Flavor with vanilla, and when cold fold in a pint of cream whipped stiff. Pour into a mold and pack. ”

“ The vanilla plant is a parasitic evergreen creeper, indigenous to Vera Cruz, Tabasco, and Oajaca. Its aromatic flavor and perfume were known to the Aztecs, who used it in their chocolate. Little care is required in its cultivation, it only being necessary to suppress hardier creepers around it. The pods which constitute the vanilla of commerce are first dried in the sun, then sweated in woollen cloths, and again dried. [60] Humboldt estimated the annual average export of the article through Vera Cruz at $60,000, since which time its production has increased fivefold. ”

“ Nine thousand years is a long time to remember things of that kind, though I don't think the scheme was a very hard one to work. For vanilla cream, it only required a well with plain soda-water in it with a quart of vanilla beans and three pints of cream poured into it four times a week; same way with other flavors—a quart of strawberries for strawberry, sarsaparilla for sarsaparilla, and so forth; but the secret was in the pouring; there was something in the way papa did the pouring; I never [126] knew just what it was. He always insisted on doing the pouring himself. ”

“ Vanilla sugar is made by putting the pods into a closed jar of fine sifted sugar, and allowing them to remain in it for a week or longer. Afterwards the extract can be made. There is a great difference in the quality of vanilla, and when it is deficient in flavour, it has without doubt been deprived of aroma by some such process as that of making vanilla sugar. Vanilla ices require a good custard, made of cream with 4 eggs to the pint, and to be well sweetened. Vanilla extract must be used with reference to its strength, and the flavour of it should be kept delicate. ”

“ One teaspoonful of vanilla.
Put sugar and butter and milk on to cook. Cook until it will form a soft ball when tried in cold water. Add vanilla, remove from stove and beat until creamy. Then put in nuts and drop from spoon on buttered papers. ”

“ The best grades of vanilla extract are made by treating vanilla beans with 50 per cent alcohol. Coumarin, an extract from tonka beans, may be used in making the extract. This of course would make a cheaper product. ”

“ Make one quart rich vanilla ice cream, and when partly frozen, add one pound of candied fruit, either cherries, currants or citron.
VANILLA ICE CREAM. From MRS. MARY C. HARRISON, of Wyoming, Lady Manager.
Three quarts sweet cream; one quart powdered sugar; one pint sweet milk (dissolve sugar in milk) ; two tablespoons extract vanilla. Pack with equal quantities of cracked ice and rock salt. Turn slowly and steadily. ”

“ To believe that any of them impart to the dishes the true flavor desired is of course ridiculous. The enormous consumption of such extracts however, is characteristic of our industrialized barbarism which is so utterly indifferent to the fine points in food. Today it is indeed hard for the public to obtain a real vanilla bean. ”

“ Cultivation—The culture of vanilla is very simple. Shoots about three feet long having been fastened to trees, and scarcely touching the ground, soon strike roots on to the bark, and form plants which commence to produce fruit in three years, and remain productive for thirty to forty. ”

“ Vanilla, once planted, requires very little attention, and it grows most luxuriantly in the dark shadow of the dense forest, where the natives engaged in artificial impregnation of the flower and in gathering the bean are protected against the direct heat of the sun. The great advantage of vanilla-cultivation to the island consists in the fact that this valuable article of commerce can be grown without deforestation, so essential in the cultivation of much less valuable products of the soil of the tropics. ”

“ This consists in rolling the pods between the fingers to distribute the unctuous liquid, which exudes during the sweating process (fermentation) , and to which the pods owe their lustre and suppleness.
Vanilla workers are apt to suffer from an affection known as vanillism, characterized by an itching eruption of the skin, nasal catarrh, more or less headache and muscular pain. By some this is said to be caused by a poisonous substance in the vanilla or perhaps the oil of cashew, with which the pods are coated. ”