"vanilla... cooks from homes to commercial establishments are tempted to use the cheaper artificial version...
nutritionist Brenda... director of sales training at Watkins Inc., a Winona, Minn.[US]-based company that's been selling pure vanilla extract since 1895... Vanilla-bean production, she says, is "the most expensive agricultural process because it's extremely time- and labor-intensive." Its long journey from blossom to palate... depends on exquisitely precise growing and curing techniques... Vanilla planifolia... The thin beans (or pods) don't grow... unless the flower is pollinated. In Mexico, where vanilla beans were first cultivated in the pre-Columbian era, the Melipona bee took care of that. But Melipona couldn't live outside Mexico. So the orchids that colonists and explorers brought to regions straddling the equator flowered but bore no fruit. ... That changed in the mid-19th century, when a former slave on Madagascar discovered that self-pollination would jump-start the flower into making beans. ... Madagascar and the nearby islands of Comoros, Reunion and Mauritius -- as well as Indonesia, Tahiti and Mexico -- ... where planifolia flourishes. ... pollination is still up to humans, who must seize a very small window of opportunity. Each orchid opens for only a few hours one morning a year. Agricultural workers inspect the vines of their thousands of flowers every day. They fold back an open flower's membrane separating the sex organs, then press male anther to female stigma with a needle. Once grown after about nine months and harvested by hand, the beans undergo a six-month curing process. They're spread on mats to absorb the sun's heat, wrapped in blankets and straw mats at night to "sweat," and finally stored in holding rooms to cure... Cyclone Hudah hit Madagascar in April 2000 and wiped out a third of the crop. That loss, having to replant the orchids (which take two to three years to first blossom) and bad weather in 2003, which caused only one-fifth of the new orchids to blossom, all made wholesale prices spike in 2004... Supply has recovered and the price has plummeted to $35 per pound. That's welcome news to food scientist Frank Tangel Jr., director of technical application at Flavor & Fragrance Specialties' research lab in Mahwah, where he directs the development of new proprietary flavors. "There's nothing like the rich, creamy profile of vanilla," Tangel says. "It tastes good in itself, and as a base enhances just about every flavor, like fruit, cinnamon and other spices." It even, he adds, enhances the flavor of salt in products like soups and sauces without increasing sodium content. FFS buys vanilla products from International Flavors & Fragrances in Dayton. They use mostly extract, which manufacturers like IFF and Watkins produce by continuously recirculating alcohol and water through the beans. (The FDA requires extract to have a minimum of 13.35 ounces of beans to a gallon of minimum 35 percent alcohol to 65 percent water mixture.) .... FFS develops new flavors for national clients. When Dunkin' Donuts, for example, wanted a vanilla-flavored coffee, it sent coffee beans to FFS. Tangel and his staff of food technologists, flavor chemists and compounders followed the typical two-month, 15-step process -- including analysis, quality control and taste-testing -- to develop the flavor. After approval by Dunkin' Donuts, FFS sent the formula -- one of 100 vanilla flavor applications in its 65,000-application database -- for production in its Baltimore plant... ... FFS also provided the vanilla flavoring for Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Stolichnaya Stoli Vanil vodka. ... Despite the expense, vanilla extract can be considered a bargain. Its intense flavor means that you need to use only a little to perform culinary magic. No refrigeration is necessary, only storage -- preferably in a glass container, away from heat and light. ... vanilla extract ages well. Its taste only gets tastier. ... Vanilla, the world's favorite flavor of ice cream, also is found in seafood recipes, cookie dough, tobacco, coffee, soy and alcoholic beverages, lip balm and envelope and postage stamp paste. Used in chocolate production to counteract cocoa's bitter taste, it's the key enhancer in white chocolate. ... As either a positive scent or a neutralizer of malodors, vanilla is a component of air fresheners, potpourri, candles, shampoos and carpet cleaners. ... In controlled studies, meals with vanilla flavoring provided a higher degree of satisfaction than identical meals without it [smile...]. A recent study in London found that overweight people who were given vanilla-scented skin patches significantly reduced their intake of sweet food." source : http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MjEmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5Mjg1MzgmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3 ********** regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
