One flavor many cooks frequently forget to try is vanilla, which has a heady, aromatic taste combined with sweet, fruity and floral scents. Vanilla beans are grown in mainly four locations around the world - Madagascar, Indonesia, Mexico and Tahiti - and each variety of beans can be used to enhance both sweet and savory flavors.
Vanilla’s flavor and fragrance are so enveloping throughout American life, it is often assumed to be a common, easily grown ingredient. However, that assumption couldn’t be further from the reality. The vanilla bean is the second most expensive spice in the world, second only to saffron, and it is so expensive because it is so difficult and time-consuming to grow and ferment.
Vanilla actually is produced by an orchid (Vanilla planifolia) native only to Central America - the only orchid of around 20,000 varieties that bears anything edible. In order to produce the vanilla bean, the orchid wants to be pollinated by stingless Melipona bees, also only found in Central America, and the orchid flower only opens for less than a day. If not pollinated during that time, the flower will fall off and no vanilla beans will be formed.
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