Vanilla?

Penzeys is a mail order place with some retail stores spread around the country and they are the go-to spice store for a lot of serious cooks.  They have five varieties of ground cinnamon.

Both Homegoods and World Market have largish bottles of real vanilla.  I'm sure that's where my wife gets ours, mostly because the labels are mostly not in English and they have stickers on them for nutrition information. 

RevRico said:

In reply to preach :

Just wait until they figure out that cinnamon isn't really cinnamon.

cassia and Ceylon are both still cinnamon. 

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/types-of-cinnamon

In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :

There's a Penzeys near my mother in laws, I love walking around in there. 

There are no chemical differences between real and artificial vanilla. 

I was shocked, too. But people pay a premium for the real stuff.  I always do.  

This is interesting.  You may want to stop reading at castoreum . . .

The flavour rundown . . .

I ordered an 8oz bottle of Nielsen-Massey Pure Vanilla Extract on Amazon for almost $40.

Based on my previous imitation vanilla bottle, that'll work out to about ~$8/year worth of Vanilla.

The McCormmick Vanilla is a little cheaper, but I found their willfully plastering a giant "Non GMO" label on the box annoying.  There are only 10 FDA approved GMO crops sold in the US, Vanilla sure as hell ain't one of them, so of course it's Non GMO.  McCormmick marketing taking advantage of consumer ignorance and insinuating it not being a "GMO" is somehow better, obviously isn't a crime, but it irked me enough to not give them my money. [/soapbox]

Penzey's Spices has vanilla beans, Mexican vanilla, single strength vanilla, and double strength vanilla.

https://www.penzeys.com/search/#?q=vanilla

We have been customers for quite a while and have never bought a bad product from them.

Watkins or Costco

French toast, put good vanilla in the eggwash you use for French toast 

In reply to Duke :

Everyone always raved over my mom's cookies.  She said her secret was simple:  Never use imitation anything.

Justjim75 said:

French toast, put good vanilla in the eggwash you use for French toast 

I've slowly gotten SWMBO to eat French toast, I don't know who ruined French toast for her, but she's slowly coming around, I'll try this next time, and maybe we can finally get past the bad memories.

I've been making Pioneer Woman's sour cream pancake recipe for several years now, that's my most frequent use of Vanilla, I am very much looking forward to making them with real Nielsen-Massey stuff vs. imitation.

ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:

There are no chemical differences between real and artificial vanilla. 

Being chemically identical does NOT mean it's the same. Be it flavor or scent - and of course they are very related - modern spectrographic analysis can get them close, but never gets them there.

carguy123 said:

I don't remember right off hand what it is in Mexican Vanilla that makes you shy away from it, but one of the ingredients in it is dangerous.

There's a good write up on that here:

https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2328/is-mexican-vanilla-toxic-plus/

In reply to EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) :

Why 3? What size bottle?  Does this give a product approximating the strength of store bought? I only ask because in about 10 or 15 years, I'm going to need more vanilla extract.

Penzeys has a store about a mile from my house.  Love wandering through and picking some things up.  

Duke said:

ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:

There are no chemical differences between real and artificial vanilla. 

Being chemically identical does NOT mean it's the same. Be it flavor or scent - and of course they are very related - modern spectrographic analysis can get them close, but never gets them there.

 

I noted in my post that I only use real stuff.  But I was listening to a truly accomplished baker who said the only reason she uses real vanilla is because her customers expect it.  Otherwise she said she would happily use artificial stuff for her own consumption.  I’m not arguing for it.  I simply thought it was interesting  and at first I didn’t believe that they were chemically the same.  Hence the post.  

In reply to Dr. Hess (Forum Supporter) :

3 because that was the number of beans in the container I bought. The bottle was the small (200ml?) Flask-shaped bottle. I would say that it approximates the strength of natural vanilla after sitting for a month. It's been so long since I used store bought vanilla it's hard to say. Get back to me in a decade and let me know. 

Costco is $15 or so for good quality stuff. 

In reply to EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks.  Will Do!

Duke said:

ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:

There are no chemical differences between real and artificial vanilla. 

Being chemically identical does NOT mean it's the same. Be it flavor or scent - and of course they are very related - modern spectrographic analysis can get them close, but never gets them there.

 

And you touch on a good point Duke. 

The natural vanilla extract and artificial have one very distinct difference, the vapor point. Natural vanilla extract will burn off vannilin and other flavor/scent enzymes at a much lower temperature than artificial will, which is why artificial is actually better for cookies and other high temperature recipes.

But, science versus peoples opinions and all that noise. 

In my ice cream days, We used Nielsen Massey in our vanilla bean gelato and other flavors that needed the vanilla background.  About 5 years ago, the vanilla crop in Madagascar was hit by a cyclone.  Vanilla we used went from $125/gallon to $750, has come down a little since.

We use Penzey's at home, the double strength.

I had heard about this before but had to look this up to make sure it was true before I posted it.  It looks like it was true at one point, but very, very, very rare now.  I still prefer the real stuff.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/castoreum/

In reply to PMRacing :

I warned people to stop reading when they got to castoreum.  But I guess I've always been a fan of . . . . wait.  This is a family friendly place.

Castoreum......YUM.

In reply to Justjim75 :

Ever try that with Grand Marnier?