Page 37 - Allrecipes (January 2020)

In Season TRENDING

THAT LITTLE BOTTLE

OF VANILLA EXTRACT

I
IN YOUR PANTRY S
ONLY THE BEGINNING.
The world of vanilla is so much roomier, spanning
the tropics from Mexico to Madagascar and Tahiti
to Tonga. In addition to extracts, it comes in
pastes, powders, and whole beans. And any of
them will elevate your holiday baking.
Vanilla plants grow best within 20 degrees of the
equator, and each country’s beans have their own
distinctive flavor. Vanilla from Madagascar and
Indonesia, for instance, boasts the most vanillin,
the signature flavor compound in vanilla beans.
Mexican beans have half as much vanillin but
are smoky, fruity, and wine-y. Tahitian vanilla has
a lot less vanillin, too, but is famed for its more
perfumed, floral flavor.
For hundreds of years, Mexico
had a monopoly on vanilla beans.
Although the vanilla orchid could
grow on vines in other moist,
tropical climates around the world,
only a rare type of bee in Mexico
could pollinate the tricky trumpet-
shape plant to produce their
bashful beans. That is, until 1841,
when people realized they could
hand-pollinate the plants using
a toothpick-like stick—a method
still used today. (See “It’s Not Easy
Being Vanilla,” next page.)

We put a variety of vanillas to work
in these recipes. They’ll convince
you that there’s more to vanilla than
the old ice cream standby.

(
i
Tahitian vanilla above) s ust one
j

of many varieties. Vanilla beans are

among the world’s most expensive crops.