What vanilla to buy?

[jennyema]

actually mexican vanilla can also be very good and expensive

Yes, the real stuff can be excellent.

 

[Gretchen]

I remember an episode of America's Test Kitchen's where they tested different types of vanilla extract. They mixed a measured amount of several popular and some exotic varieties with milk. The mix had a much stronger vanilla flavor than you would likely taste with any recipe. The results proved that they were all very similiar, and used in a recipe the difference would be even less noticable. That is my story and I'm sticking to it!

The other thing a test by Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen, I believe) did was to pick artificial vanilla as the best tasting vanilla. That one result makes me shake my head and wonder WHO they have doing the tasting. Artificial vanilla is nasty tasting.

 

[ChefJune]

IMO, I can taste a hugh difference between imitation vanilla and Bourbon-Madagascar from Neilsen-Massey. I started baking when I was a kid, in my cooking-challanged Mom's kitchen. She only kept imitation vanilla. When I moved out and started to keep my own kitchen, I started with store bought pure vanilla. I know only use the Bourbon-Madagascar from Neilsen-Massey. This vanilla is heavenly in cookies and whatever else you bake.

So to answer your question, no, all vanillas are pretty much not all the same. You get what you pay for. If you can afford it, try a very good vanilla.

I'm with you on that, Beth. I've even made "Vanilla Bean" Ice cream with only the extract from Neilsen-Massey, and my eaters thought it was my "best vanilla yet!" Go figure!

I don't know whether or not any of you know the "Vanilla Queen," Patricia Rain, but she has a GREAT vanilla web site at www.vanilla.com. She offers a number of top quality vanillas on her site, and I've tried a few. I know some folks who prefer one or another of hers, but my pref is the Neilsen-Massey.. In fact, I buy it direct from them in bulk, cause I use a lot of it.

 

[Yakuta]

I use a lot of vanilla in my baking and I bought the Tones brand - pure vanilla extract from SAMS club. It's much cheaper than other stores and you get a lot. I also bought the same brand pure almond extract and that's good too. I also have the more expensive Madagascar brand that I got as a gift from a friend who bought it at Crate and Barrel but I can't tell the difference.

Not to go off on a tangent here but I dont know why vanilla beans are so so expensive. I guess the craze of it being gourmet in the west has made it so expensive and inaccessible (unless you go to specialty stores and pay a huge premium).

Growing up most of our friends who went to Dar-es-Salaam in Africa would bring us tons of vanilla beans. These were so soft, plump and pliable. We would refuse them because we did not know what to do with some much vanilla. We would make vanilla sugar, custards etc but baking was not as popular in India and Indian desserts don't really use vanilla so at some point we use throw it out. The irony is that now I miss having them but no more members from the US go to Africa any more and I have heard it's gotten very pricey even in Africa.

 

[Gretchen]

Ummmmm...HOLY CRAP! How do you know which are the cheap brands from Mexico???? I've had two people bring back bottles for me and I am using one of them now. Is Coumarin a blood thinner? Like Coumadin?

If you buy it in a grocery for under a dollar, don't.

I have bought many a bottle of excellent vanilla in Mexico.

 

[TexasTamale]

Vagriller, if you haven't tested them yourself, why would you dispute someone who has?

CUZ.....
that's what we are here for "Chef".... June ....
Not all of us are by "trade" Chefs....and sometimes...we "think" together...

I was raised on "Mexico Vanilla"...
it will NOT taste as good as "expensive", because it is Mexico...but, I would use it in a "contest" with you, because it is what "makes-my-recipe" taste the way it does...

 

[thymeless]

In cooked foods, Cook's Illustrated blind tasting panel found no difference between artificial and the real thing. Except cost of course.

In uncooked foods, they could tell the difference and preferred the real thing.

I don't bake a lot of sweets so I don't sweat it too much.

thymeless

 

[Chopstix]

I have the Madagascar-Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste from Williams Sonoma. It contains vanilla bean seeds which gives a gourmet look to custards and stuff. It definitely renders a much more distinctive vanilla taste and smell than the artificial ones. (Well, maybe my artificial one isn't that good to start with...)

 

[karadekoolaid]

Just to bring us all down to earth a little...

"REAL" vanilla is the seed pod of an (originally) Mexican orchid. the word " Vanilla" is an English corruption of the Spanish word "Vainilla", meaning sheath, or (long) bean .
The vanilla orchid only grows at a certain altitude ( I recall it has to be more than 2,000 mts, but I may be wrong) in a certain climate with a certain temperature and a certain micro-environment. For that reason it is so expensive. You cannot find Hydroponic Vanilla, thank God!

"Someone" ( probably the local indigenous population) discovered the extraordinary perfume, allure and flavour.

If you want to taste Heaven, buy yourself a REAL vanilla pod,split in two, scrape out the seeds and prepare yourself for a culinary experience.

If you want to use run-of-the-mill stuff, that's also fine (vanilla is very expensive) but you'll be missing out on a very special flavour.

Regarding "Toxic" Mexican vanilla extract -it's false. I'm happy to announce that this is complete rubbish, since the label MUST display all ingredients.Unfortunately, if ONE product slips through the net, then ALL products are I've spoken to Mexican producers who assure me that only the very cheapest brands use coumarin. Coumarin tastes a little like vanilla, too.

The exhortation remains. Buy the real thing, boys and girls, and you won't get any surprises!!

 

[bevkile]

I made my own and gave gifts to my sister and friend. Bought 10 Madagascar beans for $20. Lovely beans. Bought two 750ml and one pint of vodka. Split the beans, and placed four beans in each 750ml and two in the pint. I did this 6 months ago. It will never get as dark as what you buy, but that is because commercial vanilla has "burned sugar" added to it, so my bil told me. I looked at the ingredients on some of my "pure vanilla" and none of them used sugar as an additive but they did have corn syrup added.

My sister has been using hers and says it is wonderful and it gets better each time she uses it.

Keep in mind the there is a loss in strength caused by heat in the baking process.

 

[RPCookin]

Just checked out the bottle my wife brought back from Mexico earlier this year. Ingredients are water, ethyl alcohol, vanilla pod, natural coloring and preservative. The bottle specifically states that it does NOT contain coumarin.

 

[scott123]

A few years back Trader Joes used to sell 4 oz. of the Neilsen-Massey vanilla for $5. Those were the days. I was in vanilla heaven. Then the cyclone hit in Madagascar and the availability/prices skyrocketed. Although they've come down slightly since then, the demand for vanilla is such that it's still costly (Darn Food Network!).

TJs stop selling the Neilsen-Massey and replaced it with their own Madagascar/Tahitian blend. It's no Neilsen-Massey, but it is $4 for 4 oz. Compare that to $19 for 8 oz. for the Neilsen-Massey at Williams Sonoma, and it's a huge bargain. It's less than half the price, but definitely more than half the potency.

I've tried the Penzey's double strength. For the price that they're charging, it should have an in your face potency. It doesn't. I'm also not at all happy about the added sugar. Penzey's is 13.99 for a 4 oz. bottle of double strength extract. The Penzey's double strength is definitely stronger than the madagascar/tahitian single strength TJs, but there's no chance in heck it's 3.5 times stronger. No way. Maybe double. At this potency/price this makes Penzey more costly than Williams Sonoma. I didn't think it was possible for any store to be more expensive than Williams Sonoma, especially when Penzey's spices are so inexpensive. But for some reason vanilla at Penzey's... cha ching!

If I had money to burn... I'd probably get Neilsen-Massey vanilla (along with 3 year old Parmigiano Reggiano). With my budget as it is, it's TJs all the way (for my both my vanilla and my 1 yr. old parm).

 

[scott123]

It will never get as dark as what you buy, but that is because commercial vanilla has "burned sugar" added to it, so my bil told me. I looked at the ingredients on some of my "pure vanilla" and none of them used sugar as an additive but they did have corn syrup added.

Your bil is incorrect. Some commercial vanillas contain sugar/corn syrup but many do not and are still dark colored. The reason why your homemade extract wasn't as dark as the commercial stuff was because you weren't using enough beans. For 750ml of vodka (I'd, personally, use grain alcohol for a cleaner taste) you'd want to use at least 12 beans, definitely not 4.

 

[kadesma]

This is interesting, I love vanilla but with the ones I'd had at home there was always something missing in the finished product. Then smell when mixing was great, but no hint at all when finished. I was watching a program on food network I think or PBS and they were talking about vanilla. It was said to check the label and get one with no sugar added to it, and to get pure vanilla. So I started looking and found the usual and then two unknown to me. I tried the Morton Basset pure vanilla..The smell was wondrful, so I used it in some french toast, there it was that thing that was missing from the others a slight hint of vanilla in your mouth...I have to say, it made my old hum drum french toast come to life..So for me I can tell the difference in vanilla and am I glad I watched that program.
kadesma

 

[college_cook]

I don't bake much, so I normally use the imitation stuff if I'm just experiemnting or making something on the fly. When I do some serious baking then I pull out my botle of pure vanilla extract.

An interesting sidenote about flavor differences, I love the flavor imparted by vanilla beans a gazillion times better than any extracts or imitations I have tried. The restaurant I work for actually makes their own vanilla extract, and I'm curious s to how the process is done. I do know that Absolut vodka is involved in some way. (For those who don't know, "pure vanilla extract" labaled vanilla products contain around 32-35% alcohol)

 

[XeniA]

Always used real extract (raised on McCormick's; moved to Penzey's) but now I have to remember to bring some home from trips as it's not available here. Right now, I'm fresh out.

Here they use odd little capsules of a white powder. The name (and smell) is clearly indicating vanilla ("van-EE-lya") but it has to be artificial. I'd rather use alternate flavoring than fake so my white cakes have a hint of orange or lemon.

I thought one day I'd found the real deal at an extremely comprehensive spice specialty store down in the bowels of this big city, and they said it WAS "real" vanilla extract (a wee little bottle, to be used in drops) ... but if it was "real" anything, it was real vanillin. Ick and double ick. I chucked it.

My only alternative is to buy the beans, as frighteningly expensive here as anywhere (over 1 Euro a bean). Thus I have ... one ... sitting in a spice jar looking at me, and one of these days when I want to make a recipe where I absolutely can't avoid the flavor (homemade vanilla ice cream, let's say), I'll split it and use it and be right back where I was, between a rock and a hard place!

 

[Ishbel]

A bit like those HUGE packs of 'saffron' that you can buy in Greek island markets... which turns out to be turmeric when you get it home, Ayrton!

I fell for it ONCE on Crete. Too cute to do so again

 

[bethzaring]

I buy Neilsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla by the quart, for $37.95, which works out to about $9.50 for 8 ounces. I have never tried Penzey's. I buy my vanilla online through King Arthur. They(KA) also charge $19.95 for 8 ounces.

 

[XeniA]

A bit like those HUGE packs of 'saffron' that you can buy in Greek island markets... which turns out to be turmeric when you get it home, Ayrton!

I fell for it ONCE on Crete. Too cute to do so again

Well, gosh, my tail IS between my legs for the entirety of my adopted country if you got gyped thus, Ishbel!

What's strange is that I do actually think we produce saffron here, as in, I have a vague memory of a documentary on it. Now if that's the case, why did you get ripped off???

Will investigate. Take it up with the authorities and all that.

 

[Ishbel]

Seriously, I've had quite a few friends/acquaintances fall for the 'amazing value saffron' scam. I was caught by my greed. I even questioned the stallholder, who'd lived in London, and who categorically assured me it was 'genuine saffron, powdered as is the custom here'.... YEAH, right!

It's happened to friends on Cyprus, Paxon, Rhodes, Crete (me and two others with me at the market in Chania!) and Corful.

As they sell it on market stalls, I suspect the authorities are either turning a blind eye, or are unaware of the scam!!