BBC:
A barefoot farmer is making his way through a forest. Quiet drops of rain tumble steadily through the night, picked out in the light from his torch. The rusty machete he holds isn’t for cutting down vines or chopping away stubborn branches – it is a defence against thieves.
Lots of other men – farmers like him – are out in the rain, patrolling the forest. For the past three months, they have left their homes every night and made the long journey into the plantations to protect their crop. But this is not an illegal coca plantation, or anything like it. In fact, these farmers are growing a crop whose name is a byword for something boring.
The men need weapons to guard against robbers who roam the countryside looking for one thing – Madagascan vanilla.
As an amateur cook, I’ve had chef friends say, “You must use real vanilla!” I had no idea it would make that much of a difference but it really does. That being said, the price of real vanilla has skyrocketed in the past few years.
That was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Thanks for sharing the link, Shawn.
“I’ve had chef friends say, “You must use real vanilla!” I had no idea it would make that much of a difference but it really does.”
Flavour science 101:
To make real vanilla extract you steep the vanilla beans in alcohol. You get a mixture of hundreds of compounds extracted from the bean contributing to the smell and taste profile. Ditto for other extracts and (replacing alcohol with oil) for essences.
“Vanilla flavour” (the main ingredient in fake vanilla extract) consists of one compound identified by flavour scientists as the predominant constituent of the flavour of real vanilla. Ditto for “strawberry flavour,” “almond flavour” and so on — regardless of whether it says “natural flavour” or “artificial flavour” on the label, it will contain just one or at most a handful of aromatic compounds that somebody has decided are good enough to pass for the predominant smell/taste of the real thing. The only difference between “natural flavour” and “artificial flavour” (by FDA regulation) is whether that single aromatic compound was originally extracted from a food (not necessarily the food it’s supposedly the flavour of) or if it was chemically synthesized in the laboratory.
These flavour compounds never actually taste like the real thing, at best they are adjacent to or reminiscent of the real thing. For the best experience, avoid all flavour additives and look for things made with real extracts and essences, or better yet, with the thing itself (real vanilla beans, real strawberries, etc).
I make my own vanilla extract. Vanilla beans, 1 part water, 3 parts vodka.