Holiday Cooking – Vanilla

Baking is one of my favorite things about the Christmas holiday season. I pull out my favorite recipes (add a few new ones), and fill the house with delicious aromas. This month I’ll be taking a look at the plants that season some of my favorite recipes. None of them are native to the San Francisco Bay Area, but several of them are “new world” plants that were exported and are now cultivated around the world.

First up is vanilla, a favorite flavoring for cookies, cakes, and candies. Vanilla is from the Orchidaceae family, and the species most used for cooking is Vanilla planifolia (also known as Vanilla fragrans). Two other species used are Vanilla pampona and Vanilla tahitiensis, both of which contain a third less of the substance “vanillin” that provides the distinctive flavor. Vanilla planifolia originated in Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America. The Aztecs used vanilla to flavor a chocolate drink called tlilxochitl that was served only to royalty. The Spaniards introduced vanilla and cacao to Europe.

Botanical illustration of Vanilla planifolia
from Koehler's Medicinal Plants
(published before 1923 and public domain in the United States).

In the wild, Vanilla planifolia grows as a long vine (80-100 feet) on tall trees in the rainforest. Leaves are short-petioled, oblong-lancelot to eight inches; flowers grow on a raceme, with each flower lasting for a day unless pollinated; the fruit is a seed pod that resembles a green bean. When cultivated, the flowers must be pollinated by hand. The vanillin is extracted from the seed pod in a labor-intensive process that involves sweating, drying, and fermenting the pod (hence the cost). Vanilla is sold as an extract, a paste, and as a bean. To find out about the best vanilla for your holiday baking and gift-giving: 
http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/wheretobuygourmetfoods/tp/topvanillabrand.htm