The blog of cooking-ez.com
There is vanilla and vanilla
The vanilla is a delicious taste that can be found in many many dessert recipes, creams (the cream and the cream for example), ice creams, but also cakes and entremets.
Whenever you need to add this vanilla note, you have several possible choices because vanilla is commercially available in different forms, and also price...
Whenever you need to add this vanilla note, you have several possible choices because vanilla is commercially available in different forms, and also price...
5,905 2 5
Last modified on: December 14th 2017
There is vanilla and vanilla
We could try to make a mini-inventory of the possibilities, and of the associated quality, but to make it simple, there are 2 forms of vanilla: the pods, and the rest.
And the vanilla bean is the best: you are sure of what you are handling, it is impossible to make fake vanilla beans (well... for the moment). A vanilla bean is the fruit of the vanilla tree that has been dried and prepared. It doesn't smell much like vanilla, because its secret is inside, the little black, pasty beans that are the value of vanilla. To use a pod, you split it in 2 lengthwise and scrape out, with the back of a knife, the small black grains it contains and add them to your preparation.
It's the presence of those little black seeds that are your assurance that you're dealing with something that actually contains real vanilla.
There are different varieties of vanilla beans, depending on their origin, Indian Ocean, Tahiti, South America, ... they are more or less expensive, and less strong in taste. Personally, I have a weakness for the vanilla known as "Bourbon" from the island of Reunion. If you have to buy some, know that it is not cheap, but that it is normal (quality you know...), and that you have to take them quite soft, a little fat to the touch, it is a sign of freshness, because they dry with time.
Only after that comes anything made from pods: powder, paste, extract, purée, etc. For all these, no secret, you have to read the label very carefully so as not to find yourself, as I did, with a "liquid vanilla extract" which in fact contains 99% water and 1% vanilla sugar syrup.
And finally, at the very bottom of the scale, the very cheap vanillin, which is not vanilla, but a pure synthetic product that just gives a standardised vanilla taste.
The picture would not be complete without mentioning vanilla sugar, these small sachets are widely used, many recipes no longer indicate a weight, but just "add 1 sachet of vanilla sugar", and it should be understood "10 grams".
It is rather a good product (be careful to read the label anyway, there is not always only sugar and vanilla in it, and especially beware of very cheap packets, and right next to it, of "vanillinized sugar"), but that you can very advantageously prepare yourself at home.
By the way, run away from all the pseudo recipes that tell you that sticking a vanilla bean in a jar of sugar will give you vanilla sugar, it's a big lie because the bean is quite airtight.
As you can see, there is vanilla and there is vanilla, and you always have to be careful about what you use, as soon as you do a little baking.
Note that whenever possible, you should give the taste of the vanilla beans time to express itself, i.e. don't cook immediately, but let it rest. If you are making an ice cream, a flan, or a vanilla cream for example, it will be better with a more pronounced taste, if you make your preparation the day before, and let it rest overnight in the fridge in a closed container.
To sum up: Whenever you need to put vanilla in a recipe, prefer a whole pod, and let it rest if possible. If you want vanilla sugar, feel free to make it yourself, it'll be very good, much cheaper, and you'll be able to say "I made it!" (which is, of course, priceless).
And the vanilla bean is the best: you are sure of what you are handling, it is impossible to make fake vanilla beans (well... for the moment). A vanilla bean is the fruit of the vanilla tree that has been dried and prepared. It doesn't smell much like vanilla, because its secret is inside, the little black, pasty beans that are the value of vanilla. To use a pod, you split it in 2 lengthwise and scrape out, with the back of a knife, the small black grains it contains and add them to your preparation.
It's the presence of those little black seeds that are your assurance that you're dealing with something that actually contains real vanilla.
There are different varieties of vanilla beans, depending on their origin, Indian Ocean, Tahiti, South America, ... they are more or less expensive, and less strong in taste. Personally, I have a weakness for the vanilla known as "Bourbon" from the island of Reunion. If you have to buy some, know that it is not cheap, but that it is normal (quality you know...), and that you have to take them quite soft, a little fat to the touch, it is a sign of freshness, because they dry with time.
Only after that comes anything made from pods: powder, paste, extract, purée, etc. For all these, no secret, you have to read the label very carefully so as not to find yourself, as I did, with a "liquid vanilla extract" which in fact contains 99% water and 1% vanilla sugar syrup.
And finally, at the very bottom of the scale, the very cheap vanillin, which is not vanilla, but a pure synthetic product that just gives a standardised vanilla taste.
The picture would not be complete without mentioning vanilla sugar, these small sachets are widely used, many recipes no longer indicate a weight, but just "add 1 sachet of vanilla sugar", and it should be understood "10 grams".
It is rather a good product (be careful to read the label anyway, there is not always only sugar and vanilla in it, and especially beware of very cheap packets, and right next to it, of "vanillinized sugar"), but that you can very advantageously prepare yourself at home.
By the way, run away from all the pseudo recipes that tell you that sticking a vanilla bean in a jar of sugar will give you vanilla sugar, it's a big lie because the bean is quite airtight.
As you can see, there is vanilla and there is vanilla, and you always have to be careful about what you use, as soon as you do a little baking.
Note that whenever possible, you should give the taste of the vanilla beans time to express itself, i.e. don't cook immediately, but let it rest. If you are making an ice cream, a flan, or a vanilla cream for example, it will be better with a more pronounced taste, if you make your preparation the day before, and let it rest overnight in the fridge in a closed container.
To sum up: Whenever you need to put vanilla in a recipe, prefer a whole pod, and let it rest if possible. If you want vanilla sugar, feel free to make it yourself, it'll be very good, much cheaper, and you'll be able to say "I made it!" (which is, of course, priceless).
Lasts posts
Celeriac soups and the 3rd ingredient
Do you like celeriac, a vegetable that is not always a big hit? If your answer is "no" or "not so much", it is perhaps that you have in mind the celery remoulade, the emblematic starter, with the eggs mimosa, of the bistrot kitchen. It's very good, well if you like it of course, but it's a bit...3194.6 May 21th 2022
The delicious complexity of Jura wines
Do you know the wines of the Jura? Maybe not, it's a small appellation, 2000 hectares, with a production of wines that are both very atypical and very typical, even unique for some of them. Let me tell you a few words about it.7464.7 May 14th 2022
Shall I take the tops off?
If you buy your vegetables at the market, at a farmer's stand, once you have chosen a bunch of carrots or beets for example, you must have already heard this proposal from the salesman: "Shall I pull the tops? This sentence is his proposal to remove for you all the tops, which he puts aside, to...1,0584.7 May 7th 2022
The color of the bread crumb
When you go to buy bread, at your baker's, at the time of the choice, if you hesitate of course, you will undoubtedly be very sensitive to the color of the crust, and you will be right. The color of the crust, from golden, to sometimes very dark, deep brown almost black, depending on the maturity...1,2054.5 April 30th 2022
The salad spinner is not only for salad
Where we see that the salad spinner can be used for many other purposes.3,0854.3 March 25th 2022
Other pages you may also like
5 really useful cooking tips
Cooking is about recipes, of course, but it is also an impressive collection of small gestures, ways of doing things, knowing what to do and what not to do. All these little tips and tricks can be very important: they can affect the way a recipe turns out, simply because you did just the right...16K4.5 March 29th 2016
The taste of raw tomatoes
Let's take a look at tomatoes, which are still in full bloom at the end of summer (as I write these lines), and which make for delicious salads. I had already talked to you about the interest of peeling tomatoes, which gives them an extraordinary sweetness in the mouth, but let's talk about the...6,5424.5 September 8th 2018
Should a sausage be pricked before cooking?
If you are using sausages in a recipe, you may have already asked yourself the question: Should you prick it before cooking it, or not? You will certainly find as many opinions "you should prick" as "you should not". Let's try to untangle all this.32K2.2 September 29th 2018
The return of the vegetable grater
If you are of a certain age (say +50) you may have known, when you were a kid, something that your grandmother had in her kitchen set, the vegetable grater. A kind of mill, to be turned by hand, and which with cutting discs of different sizes, allowed to grate a lot of vegetables, carrots first...4,6075 March 20th 2021
A stable cutting board
As soon as you have something to cut in the kitchen, the best thing to do is to use a cutting board, it protects your table or work surface, and their material is made to protect the edge of your knife, that is to say that it is soft enough, in short it is the ideal thing. But simply put on the...2,2505 May 22th 2021
Post your comment or question
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.