Monday's Trivia Quiz

vanilla orchid (bean)

Yup, what Lucille said.

Rusty

Wood, flavoring is not the real thing.

IDK but I hope the plant didn't get frozen like the electricity plants did in Texas. I'd have to end it all if I couldn't have freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

Ya know, I walk a lot. From one bar to another. The bartenders keep giving me reasons to 'move along fella'!

^^^ Smile

I once got kicked out of the bar in my basement!

Direct from WSJhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-case-for-plain-vanilla-gets-its-day-in-court-11612724626?mod=searchresults_pos1&page=1

Vanilla flavor historically came from beans found in the pods of a
finicky tropical orchid, grown in countries including Madagascar, said
Kantha Shelke, a food scientist who teaches at Johns Hopkins University.
Due to high costs and fluctuating supply, many manufacturers now
instead use “natural flavor,” a catchall term for flavoring that uses
ingredients including those derived from plants. Natural vanilla flavors
are often made from wood pulp or using fermentation technology, Dr.
Shelke said.

Well I guess we all know the answer now.

An orchid

I agree that flavoring does not come from orchids - only vanilla extract comes from orchids. I was not aware that the flavoring was made from wood, however.

Real vanilla spiked in price a couple of years ago when Madagascar had a major storm wiping out a lot of the plants. (that's what I read anyway when I googled why did the prices of vanilla spike)

Research on making natural vanilla from corn fiber is also very promising

Certain type of wood (thank you Alton Brown). An alternative, is also produced from anal glands of beavers.

"An alternative, is also produced from anal glands of beavers."

Crikey!! No thanks!! And the wood derivative doesn't sound much better. I prefer to use the Mexican vanilla extract that my landscape contractor brings back for me each year after his annual wintertime visit.

And how can it be natural vanilla if made from corn fiber???

Just make sure that your Mexican vanilla does not contain coumarin if you are taking a blood thinner.

anal glands of beavers.

There's got to be a very interesting story about how, exactly, that was discovered.

Said the caveman: "Ugh. Hey, look Glarg! Me lick beaver's butt! Better than woolly mammoth balls! Want some?"

And how can it be natural vanilla if made from corn fiber???

Last time I checked corn was not synthetic.

LOL!! It is not the corn that is at issue. 'Natural' is defined "as existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by humankind". Since no corn product tastes anything like vanilla in its existing state, it stands to reason a lot of human intervention and creativity is going in to this process. Therefore by definition, it is not natural vanilla. Natural vanilla can only come from the beans/seedpods produced by the vanilla orchid!!

You may be able to get artificial vanilla flavor from corn (as apparently one can do from wood products) but you cannot get natural vanilla from corn.

LOL!!!, this article in Forbes doesn't agree with your opinion gardengal.

From the article:

“The vanilla bean is limited in supply and the problem is that it can't be produced on a scale that the markets require,” Klein says. “Corn fiber is very abundant and we will be able to produce natural vanilla at a much lower cost and a much larger scale.”

The world has so far been making up for the shortage of natural vanilla beans by synthesizing vanillin, the primary component of the vanilla bean, largely from (believe it or not) petroleum.

In order to make vanilla using their new method, Klein says they will extract an ingredient from corn fiber called ferulic acid, which is then fermented to make vanilla.

“This is the same process that vanilla is made within the vanilla bean itself, except we are able to do this outside the vanilla bean, which significantly reduces the cost” the Wisconsin-native says.

If it is synthesized or created in a lab then it is NOT natural! You cannot have it both ways. Whoever wrote the article was in error.

When did fermentation = synthesized?

Synthesized from petroleum = not natural

Derived from corn fiber = natural

Vanilla beans also must go through an extraction process using ethyl alcohol to make the finished product. Does this make it not natural too?

ETA: Sorry for the derail Jasdip!