Vanilla not so plain when you find the real thing
I was a young teenager when our neighbours returned from a vacation in Mexico and handed my parents a glass pop bottle which had been washed and refilled with Mexican vanilla extract. I remember their instructions as the bottle, containing a dark brown, almost black liquid, was handed over, "It is very strong, you won’t want to use as much as you would normally and the flavour is a little different from what you are used to."
Uncapped, the aroma, thick, sweet and lusty, quickly filled the room and I was instantly smitten. We tried to make the extract last – it made every dessert exotic and unique – but once finished we were only able to maintain a whisper of its fragrance in the bottle we all agreed not to wash.
Mexico is the birth place of vanilla. It was first cultivated by the Totonac people native to Veracruz. Totonac legend tells of a Princess and her lover who were killed in the jungle, their blood, spilling together, soaked into the fertile ground and sprouted forth the vanilla vine with a flower whose fragrance invokes beauty and true love.
Today, the flavour and aroma of vanilla is a vital ingredient among the food, cosmetic and perfume industries the world over. It is also the second most expensive spice, after saffron.
The Aztecs conquered the Totonac people in 1425 but continued vanilla cultivation. The aromatic bean was used to flavour xocolatl, a cocoa-based drink which was the precursor of chocolate. Hernando Cortes, the Spanish Conquistador, brought Mexican vanilla beans back to Europe in the early 1500s, where they became instantly popular but prohibitively expensive. The word vanilla is actually derived from the Spanish word vainilla, which means little sheath, referring to the long thin shape of the vanilla bean.
To satisfy the growing European demand for vanilla beans, which are the fruit of a willow green coloured orchid, Vanilla planifolia, the climbing vine was introduced into European colonies. The French Islands Bourbon (Reunion) and Tahiti as well as the Dutch-owned Madagascar successfully grew the orchids in plentiful quantities but there was nary a vanilla bean produced among them.
The morphology of the vanilla orchid prevents the flower from pollinating itself – a thin membrane separates the male and female parts, and the natural pollinator, the Melipona bee, is native only to Mexico. Mexico maintained a 300 year monopoly over the world’s vanilla supply.
In 1836, a Belgian botanist, Charles Morren, successfully hand pollinated the orchid at the Liege botanical garden. On La Reunion, five years later, a freed slave named Edmond Albius, discovered a feasible way to manually pollinate flowers using a toothpick-sized bamboo splinter to lift the membrane, the rostellum, and press the anther’s pollen to the stigma. This practice continues to this day.
But there is another difficulty: each flower only lasts one day, opening in the morning and closing in the afternoon. If it is not fertilized it drops to the ground. Well practised, professional hand pollinators must work at breakneck speed to treat 1,500 blossoms a day. The flowering season lasts for two months and healthy vines will be pollinated to produce between 50 and 200 pods.
Vanilla pods are hand-harvested, still green, when they are relatively flavourless and odourless. The beans are left to cure in the sun during the day and then placed in boxes or in blankets at night to "sweat", which causes the beans to ferment, darken and produce vanillin, a powdery coating that gives rise to the unique flavour and aroma. Curing the beans takes anywhere from three to six months.
Madagascar is now the world’s leading producer of vanilla beans but internal conflict and competition necessitates that plantations brand their beans to prevent theft in such a lucrative market. Mexico increased their yield of vanilla after being introduced to manual pollination and the beans were prized above all others, but the crops became controlled by fewer and fewer hands. An increased atmosphere of lawlessness, against the farming minority, which included theft and murder, undermined the quality of Mexican beans on the world market. Harvests were often hurried and premature.
At the same time, artificial vanilla, made from the by-products of wood pulp, was introduced to the market and the less expensive option appealed to large scale food manufacturers in the 1950s.
In the 1960s, many vanilla fields were destroyed by drought and cold weather, which caused farmers to replace their vanilla crops with orange groves or the raising of cattle. Much of the land was also given over to oil exploration.
Many vanilla producers in Mexico resorted to tainting vanilla extract with coumarin, an artificial flavouring, to compete with the growing vanilla market in other areas of the world. Coumarin, an anticoagulant proven to be unsafe for consumption, was banned by the United States as a use in food products in 1954. It is also banned in Canada.
All these factors contributed to weaken if not decimate Mexico’s vanilla reputation. Currently there are several grass roots farmers seeking to integrate their cultural heritage with the production of "boutique" vanilla beans. Veracruz’s tourism industry is also exploring options to offer unique vacation opportunities which include visits to vanilla farms.
Mexican vanilla beans are dark and thick and have a robust, deep flavour with an intense aroma. They continue to be considered the finest vanilla beans in the world but they are difficult to come by.
Bourbon vanilla beans, grown on Madagascar and the neighbouring isle of Reunion, are also called Madagascar beans. The beans are slender and smooth with a sweet rich taste and smell. They account for 70 per cent of the world’s vanilla beans.
Indonesian vanilla beans are the second most common bean, with a smokey, mild flavour. They are often cheaper than other types because of poor harvesting and curing practices.
Tahitian vanilla beans are a different species of vanilla, Vanilla tahitensis, thought to be the result of Vanilla planifolia cuttings cross breeding with a native orchid. These beans are the darkest in colour and are broad and short. The aroma of these beans is complex and deeply floral and they have a delicate, slightly fruity flavour.
Vanilla flavour can be purchased in many forms: individual beans, extract, powder, paste or essence. Artificial vanilla is more economical but does not offer equal flavour and should be avoided.
Vanilla beans, though costly, deliver the most superior flavour when added to foods. To use them, split a bean lengthwise with the tip of a sharp knife and scrape the tiny black seeds into the dish. If you are infusing milk, cream or another liquid, drop the whole hull into the dish along with the seeds. The hull can be removed afterwards, washed and dried, and used again several times to infuse flavour. Alternatively, scraped out hulls can be stored in a jar of sugar where they will impart their intoxicating scent and essence. The sugar can be added to coffee or hot chocolate or sprinkled over crepes or cookies.
The following recipe comes from the December 1999 issue of Saveur magazine.
Homemade Vanilla Extract
Place 10 vanilla beans (split lengthwise) in an amber coloured, sealable glass container. In a separate container, dissolve 1 tablespoon sugar in 1 litre brandy or rum (dark or white). Pour solution over beans, and store sealed container in a cool, dark place. In 15 days, the spiritswill be infused with the rich scent and mahogany colour of real vanilla.
Mexican vanilla beans can be purchased on line at www.zingermans.com. Four beans costs $12 U.S. (yikes!) plus shipping and handling. I have tried to find Mexican beans in Canada but have yet to come across them.
