Mexican Vanilla: Discovering Vanilla's Origins
Vanilla is the only edible fruit of the orchid. It grows naturally along the southern coasts of Mexico, through Central America and the Caribbean to the northeastern tip of south America. The Totonacs of Veracruz, Mexico are credited as the first cultivators of vanilla.
The Totonacs considered vanilla a sacred herb and used it in ritual offerings, as a perfume and for medicine, but rarely used vanilla as a flavoring. By the early1400s, the Aztecs added to the mystique of vanilla by combining it with chocolate to create the drink chocolatl.
It takes 18 mounts for a vanilla cutting to produce its first flowers. The small yellow-green vanilla orchid blooms for only a few hours before wilting unless it is naturally pollinated by insects -- a rare occurrence -- or hand- pollinated by workers. The pollinated orchid will produce a long green bean in a few weeks, but the bean must remain on the vine for nine months to develop its complex flavor and fragrance profile. Yet when the vanilla beans are harvested, they have neither flavor nor fragrance until they go through an arduous curing and drying process.
Methods of curing and drying vary, but in all cases, the enzymatic process in the live vanilla beans must be stopped to prevent fermenting. This is accomplished through heating the vanilla beans in ovens or blanching in hot water. The vanilla beans are then place in the sun each morning for weeks, or sometimes months, before being placed in large wooden boxes and allowed to sweat. The vanilla beans will lose nearly 80% of the original moisture content before their more than 250 natural flavor and fragrance components are completely developed. The entire process from pollination to shipment of the pure Mexican vanilla extract is about one year.
Vanilla extract, the most common from of vanilla, is made by macerating chopped beans in an alcohol-water solution and aging for several months.
Pleasant Hill Grain is proud to offer Mexican Vanilla Extract from the Blue Cattle Truck Trading Company.
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Quality Baking Ingredients: Don't undermine your results with inferior ingredients! SAF Red Label yeast has solved performance problems for many bakers. It comes vacuum packaged and its long shelf life can will be extended even further in the fridge or freezer. Vital wheat gluten gives lower-protein grain a boost in rising power. Dough enhancer (gluten-free) contains natural ingredients that help dough rise better and stay fresh longer, and improves texture. Our Mexican vanilla is coumarin free and FDA registered.
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