The sweet smell of a vanilla scented candle can stir up nostalgic feelings in most of us: birthday cakes and cookies; ice cream cones and mugs of hot chocolate; our mothers’ hugs and angora sweaters; our fathers’ aromatic pipe tobacco and Shalimar perfume.

            Our olfactory senses are inextricably connected to the pleasure centre of our brain. Vanilla essence calms and soothes; relaxes and comforts; makes us feel assured and safe. It smells like home.

            It’s not surprising that industry has capitalized on this natural sense of longing and joy evoked by vanilla, with products from coke to dryer sheets, even vodka. The irony is that the source of these feelings of well-being, are for the majority of us, from our memory of a synthetic product. Let’s face it, it was just in the past few years that the familiar old vanilla bottle, and for many people, I do mean really old, has been replaced by one a bit more exotic looking, promising to be natural and even organic. Does that make us shallow and artificial?

            The story of vanilla begins, as with so many of our modern foods, with the Aztecs. They used an orchid bean to flavour and sweeten their cocoa beverages, a practice we continue today in chocolate production.

            This orchid is a finicky flower, and only opens for a day a year, requiring lightening reflexes of butterflies to pollinate. For this reason, it was discovered that hand-pollination, was the only way to assure a large crop. This labour intensive process was compounded by the process developed by the Aztecs to extract vanilla from the beans. Once picked, the green beans were cured for several months with repeated cycles of soaking and sun-drying, then maceration in alcohol to extract the vanilla essence, followed by a lengthy aging process. It is no wonder that at one time, vanilla was considered one of the most expensive spices in the world.

            It took until the late 1800s for a scientist to discover a way to make an affordable vanilla, or at least to duplicate vanillin, the principle flavour component of pure vanilla. The original source of artificial vanillin was clove, but even cheaper methods were discovered. The most common sources of synthetic vanillin today are by-products of pulp production (Yep; the paper kind!) and coal-tar from the Tonka bean. Unfortunately, Tonka beans, used commonly in Mexican vanilla products, also contain a substance called coumarin, known to cause liver damage and possibly cancer, and is now banned by the FDA. This means that all of you who have a large bottle of vanilla purchased in Mexico on some past trip should think twice about using it. Vanilla from Mexico, unless imported by a reliable source should always be suspect

            Synthetic vanilla must be labelled as either artificial or imitation extract or flavour. There are good vanilla fakes, but they will always lack the complexity of natural vanilla because they are composed of just one of the components that make up vanilla, the vanillin. There are often many additives added in attempt to duplicate the complex flavour of pure vanilla which can leave an after-taste, not unlike artificial sweeteners.

            If the label reads “pure” or “natural” vanilla extract, it is real. These products must contain at least 35% alcohol. Most pure vanilla extract and whole beans we will find today come from islands such as Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. In the 1800s, the orchid was transplanted into large plantations there. This vanilla is considered good quality, although pure vanilla from Mexico, when available, is still considered the best in terms of sweetness and intensity. Extracts can vary greatly, depending on the beans use, extraction process, and length of aging. Cheaper extracts can be made by speeding up the process. Natural vanilla may contain sugar, corn syrup, caramel, colours and stabilizers. Sugar is often added to poorer quality vanilla which can have a bitter edge. Aging properly increases the complexity of flavour, as well as the price.

             “Vanilla flavouring,” which is what you will find listed in the ingredients of most chocolate bars, sodas, candy and commercial baking, is a mixture of both artificial and real vanilla. “Vanilla flavoured” ice-cream can contain up to 42% artificial. “Artificial flavoured” is all imitation and anything labelled simply “Vanilla ice cream,” must be all natural. Natural ice-cream can be easily spotted by the presence of all those tiny dark brown specks that are the vanilla seeds.

            There is really no need to use artificial vanilla anymore. Since the popularity of cooking as sport began, it has become possible to buy either good quality vanilla extract or the whole bean in any grocery store.

            More and more recipes in current magazines are calling for use of the whole bean or seeds. The dark, brown pod should be pliant and moist when purchased. When it is sliced open, it will be full of thousands of tiny, mushy black seeds. If a recipe calls for just the seeds, don’t throw out the pod!

            The vanilla bean can be “recycled.” You can keep it stored between uses in a sealed container of sugar. The vanilla-flavoured sugar can then be used to sweeten baked goods and puddings. The bean itself can be simmered whole in a dish to infuse the needed flavour, washed, dried and put back into the sugar for next time. You can also do this with brandy, making your own weak extract.      

            As for me, well, I’m really not into baking. I am content to roll the beans between my hands, inhaling deeply of the familiar perfume. That’s home for me.