SC - vanilla

[Ian Gourdon]

I've been trying to find commentary on vanilla for my lady's cordial
entry.
Doubtless you all know about vanilla in period, but I don't. It doesn't
appear in the commentaries of Medieval spices I've seen. Apparently with
reason. Is there anything in the Spanish recipes, etc?
These tertiary sources may not stand up to our more rigorous source
standards,
but I found it interesting. Requesting correction. Ian Gourdon

va·nil·la (v-nl) 
  1.Any of various tropical American vines of the genus Vanilla in the
orchid family,
especially V. planifolia, cultivated for its long narrow seedpods from
which a flavoring
agent is obtained. 
"Vanilla \Va*nil"la\, n. [NL., fr. Sp. vainilla, dim. of Sp. vaina a
sheath, a pod, L. vagina;
because its grains, or seeds, are contained in little pods.] 1. (Bot.) A
genus of climbing
orchidaceous plants, natives of tropical America. 

 2. The long podlike capsules of Vanilla planifolia, and V. claviculata,
remarkable for
their delicate and agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil
extracted from them;
also, the flavoring extract made from the capsules, extensively used in
confectionery, 
 perfumery, etc. 
 Note: As a medicine, vanilla is supposed to possess powers analogous to
valerian,
while, at the same time, it is far more grateful." -online dictionary
.................... 
"When the Spanish conquistadores led by Hernan Cortes were in Mexico in
1520, one of 
their officers, Bernal Diaz, observed that the emperor Montezuma was
drinking 
chocolatl, a beverage consisting of powdered cocoa beans and ground
corn, flavoured 
with tlilxochitl (ground black vanilla pods) and honey. 
For more than three centuries after this, Mexico was the leading
vanilla-producing 
country in the world despite attempts to plant the vines elsewhere." 
- - http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/lectures/vanilla.html 
by Dr. Robert J. Lancashire, The Department of Chemistry, University of
the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston 7, Jamaica. - Feb 1995  
.....................
"Its use by the Aztecs was recorded by the Spanish conquistadors.
Correll (1953) states 
the "Bernal Diaz, a Spanish officer under Hernando Cortes, was perhaps
the first white 
man to take note of this spice when he observed Montezuma, the intrepid
Aztec 
emperor, drink "chocolatl", a beverage prepared from pulverized seeds of
the cacao tree,
flavored with ground vanilla beans which the Aztecs call "tlilxochitl",
derived from 
"tlilli", meaning "black", and from "xochitl" interpreted here as
meaning "pod". Vanilla 
beans were considered to be among the rarer tributes paid to the Aztec
emperor by his 
subject tribes. Legend has it that Cortes in 1520 was given chocolate
flavored with 
vanilla by Montezuma, served in golden goblets. 

Bernardino de Sehagun, a Franciscan friar, who arrived in Mexico in
1529, wrote about 
vanilla, saying the the Aztecs used it in cocoa, sweetened with honey,
and sold the spice 
in their markets, but his work, originally written in the Aztec
language, was not 
published until 1829-1830. The Spaniards early imported vanilla beans
into Spain, 
where factories were established in the second half of the sixteenth
century for the 
manufacture of chocolate flavored with vanilla. 

Francicso Hernandez, who was sent to Mexico by Philip II of Spain, gave
an illustrated 
account of vanilla in his Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus,
which was 
first published in Rome in 1651. In it he translated "tlilxochitl" as
"black flowers', 
a fallacy which Correll (1953) say remained in the literature for many
years, although 
the flowers are greenish yellow in color. 

Hugh Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth I of England, suggested
vanilla as a 
flavoring in its own right. He gave some cured beans to the Flemish
botanist, Carolas 
Clusius, in 1602 and the latter describes them in his Exoticorum Libri
Decem of 1605. 
William Dampier observed vanilla growing in 1626 in the Bay of Campeche
in southern 
Mexico and in 1681 at Boco-Toro in Costa Rica. Formerly, vanilla was
used in medicine,
as a nerve stimulant, and along with other spices had a reputation as an
aphrodisiac. It 
was also used for scenting tobacco." 
- - Shank's Extracts 1-800-346-3135
shanks at shanks.com -- http://www.shanks.com/aboutvanilla/history.htm
- -- 
Ian Gourdon of Glen Awe, OP
Known as a forester of the Greenwood, Midrealm
 http://web.raex.com/~agincort