Vanilla chemistry What you wanted to know on vanilla

Vanilla sensory differences Danisco

How do vanilla’s from different origins compare?

The future of natural vanilla! IFF

Food Product design on vanilla creation

Vanilla recipes Using natural vanilla extracts

Vanilla    New book on all aspects of vanilla

Vanilla and its use in perfumery

Vanilla in perfumery

USA standards for vanilla extracts

Vanilla Curing Technologies

Vanilla Report Reunion Red label quality

Indian Vanilla curing

Venui Vanilla

Vanilla in Ice Cream (USA)

I have studied vanilla for a number of years now and read most of the reports. Rather than repeating the information in the above links by numerous authors I will just add my thoughts. So remember to read the links first.

Green vanilla beans contain about 85% water and 1% Vanillin present as a glucoside. Vanilla is cured by blanching the beans at 65 to 70 deg C for 2 minutes and then wrapped in a blanket to induce “sweating” ( The Bourbon Process)

There is very little scientific reasoning for this process, but tradition indicates it works.

Vanilla like a lot of fruits (the fruit of an orchid) contains a triglyceride and waxes and this is what makes the beans shine (after curing). When vanilla beans are extracted  using a 55% alcohol solution the oil is insoluble in this strength alcohol and remains on the top. Anyone who has extracted beans to make a vanilla essence will have noticed this oil.

I speculate that It may be that this dipping/blanching is to break the oil/wax outer layer to allow the fruit to dry quicker?

This process is mainly (also) used  to allow the natural enzyme to free the vanillin from the glucoside. The enzyme process works best at around 50 deg C. Now it takes 5 kg of green beans to produce 1 kg of cured beans, normally these cured beans contain only 1.8% vanillin when they should have around 5% vanillin. Vanillin is lost to evaporation.

Now traditionally woolen blankets were used in the process and now polyester ones are used. My theory is that the woolen blankets let the moisture through but retained the vanillin while the new synthetic blankets did not do the job properly.

Wool is  a great material for adsorbing odors, synthetic fabric is not a good absorber.

In case you did not read the links. Beans were wrapped in blankets and stored in boxes overnight and at midday each day were opened and exposed to the sun. This allowed the water to evaporate and heated the beans back to around 50 deg C. The beans were then wrapped again and taken back to be stored overnight. This goes on for several months until most of the water had evaporated and the maximum level of vanillin was formed. UV from the sun also helped reduce the mould.

However this skilled process was not carried out correctly in recent years leading to a poorer quality product. Synthetic blankets were part of the problem as well as lack of experience and using the Mexican method..

There are now fast curing methods that “dry” the beans fast but do little to prevent the loss of natural vanillin.

The Mexican method of curing is very crude, but suprising how many people claim it is the best. Using this method vanillin is lost to evaporation as no blankets are used.

Home made Vanilla extract

Select your vanilla beans carefully, dark moist beans with plenty of aroma.

Chop 50 grams of beans crossways into about 5 mm pieces.

Add 500 mls of unflavoured vodka (40% alcohol).

Place  this mixture into a sealed jar or bottle to prevent evaporation.

The flavour will be leached out over a period of two weeks.

The mixture will clear and then you can decant the clear extract.

Extraction technology

Vanilla Recipes

Some great recipes on this site

Vanilla Sugar

To make vanilla sugar, simply follow these five steps:

1. Split one vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds from each half

2. Cut the two halves into about ½" pieces.

3. Add the pieces and the seeds to three cups of granulated sugar in a glass jar.

4. Tightly close and store for one week, shaking occasionally.

5. Sieve the sugar as you use it, returning the beans and seeds to the jar. Add more sugar to the jar. This may be repeated over and over for 6 months or so, or until the flavor of the vanilla sugar weakens.

Recommended applications:
Flavoring for cereals, French toast, or fruit and for beverages such as coffee.
Partial replacement for vanilla in recipes calling for both vanilla and sugar

PNG Vanilla is just as exotic as  its people.

Grown in rainforests and picked by hand..

Extracts are now available!

PNG Vanilla Extracts    click for details!

Article date

 Figure 1. HPLC chromatograms of vanilla flavors obtained from cell suspension culture of Vanilla fragrans and from ripe vanilla beans. Peaks: 4-Hydroxybenzyl alcohol (1); 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2); vanillyl alcohol (3); 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (4); 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (5); 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (6); vanillic acid (7); caffeic acid (8); vanillin (9); coumaric acid (10); ferullic acid (11).
Source: Adapted from Reference 7.

Most of the vanilla sold in commercial products is made using ethyl vanillin., hence it is artificial as ethyl vanillin does not occur in nature.

Some of the first vanillas used coumarin (new mown hay) but this aroma has now been banned. Had a fantastic aroma and may still be used in tobacco flavours. Present in several natural products with Tonka beans having the highest concentration. Cinnamon contains coumarin!

Lots of French perfumes contain coumarin.

On a summers day as the hay dries you can smell it in the air.

Has been replaced by dihydro coumarin in some vanillas.

Heliotropine is also used as well as butter components.

Ethyl Vanillin is about 3 to 4 times stronger than vanillin and has better stability. In propylene glycol based flavours vanillin and ethyl form acetals.Because vanillin is cheap most vanilla flavours are very strong and hence any losses due to reactions with the food are not noticed.