It's the flavoring of the gods, loved by ancient Aztec rulers for the scent and flavor it gave the bitter dark chocolate they sipped from gold cups.

In the process, the pods become so valuable, they are "branded" with a pattern of pinpricks to deter theft.

Finally, the pods are soaked in alcohol, creating a dark liquor used in the hot chocolate you had for breakfast, the cookies you had after lunch and the ice cream that's for dessert tonight.

Truly, "just plain vanilla" doesn't seem so plain.

After all, if you have a sweet tooth, you probably eat it several times a day. Its flavor, which we taste as sweet even though it doesn't contain sugar, is used in candy, cakes, chocolate, and especially ice cream.

But there was a time when vanilla was unknown in Europe. Its secret was the privilege of indigenous people living in eastern coastal areas of Mexico, who had figured out how to make the dangling vanilla pods give up their intense flavor.

It was no easy trick, since the pods have no taste or odor, and must be cured by drying them in the sun by day, and wrapping them in blankets at night for nearly three weeks. The goal is to make the pods "sweat" and trigger an enzymatic reaction that releases vanillin, which makes vanilla taste and smell like vanilla.

How anyone ever figured out how to do this is still a mystery, though some estimate that vanilla cultivation may have started as long ago as 6000 BC.

Its introduction to Europeans, however, is known to the day. On Nov. 14, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes forced the Aztec ruler Montezuma to meet with him. Cortes was served a bitter chocolate drink, flavored with vanilla. Within three years, the Spanish had smashed the Aztec empire and carried its riches back to Spain. The plunder included vanilla, chocolate, potatoes, peppers and tomatoes, in addition to gold.

Today, our desire for vanilla is satisfied with extract from plants grown in southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Madagascar and Indonesia. Although more widely grown today than it was four centuries ago, vanilla is still very expensive due to its cultivation, which is as demanding as its processing.

Each vanilla pod requires hand pollination of the fragile vanilla blossom, which blooms in the morning and is gone by afternoon. Workers sleep among the vines to get an early morning start, pollinating each blossom with a stick. Insects and hummingbirds can also do the job, but are not considered reliable enough.

Hand pollination and careful curing make vanilla quite expensive, and not surprisingly, people use cheap imitations when they can. The most popular way to make imitation vanilla is to add an extract of tonka beans, which produce a vanilla-like odor. Synthetic vanilla is also produced from lignin, a wood pulp extract made from wood wastes.

Neither imitation has the same flavoring power as true vanilla and sometimes has an unpleasant aftertaste.

Local grocery stores sell imitation vanilla for roughly one-fourth the price of their pure vanilla, which is usually around $2 an ounce. The Co-op's vanilla is the absolute best buy in town, at 65 cents an ounce for pure extract and $1.20 an ounce for organic.

You can make your own vanilla extract by simply buying a few Co-op vanilla beans which cost $2.68 each, and soaking them in six ounces of brandy for six weeks or so. As you use the extract, replace it with more brandy.

The Co-op's vanilla beans are beautifully fragrant and pliable. To keep them from drying out, store in an airtight container. Vanilla extract must also be kept away from of the light and capped tightly to prevent evaporation.

Both should keep indefinitely.

I have noticed cookie recipes are more generous with vanilla measurements these days, and I believe it is a happy improvement. As a general rule, I use about a teaspoon of extract for every cup of flour when baking. Chocolate brownies and cake call for even more vanilla, I find.

Vanilla is also useful in fruit desserts, where it can ease the need for sugar. Try a quarter teaspoon of extract in a pie filling or fruit crisps, or a teaspoon when poaching pears. For best flavor, add vanilla at the end of cooking when a dish is cooling. For an intense, true vanilla taste, split a one-inch piece of vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape its tiny seeds into your dish. Those seeds are the same dark flecks you see in really good vanilla ice cream. Vanilla is a traditional flavoring for many dairy-based desserts, and absolutely necessary for good rice pudding. This recipe takes full advantage of its fragrance.

 

 

 

 

 

Rice Pudding

4 cups milk
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup uncooked white rice
1 vanilla bean
1/3 cup blanched almonds, roughly chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten