[Sca-cooks] OOP: Vanilla Extract

[Terry Decker]

First reference, Bernardino de Sahagun, General History of the Things of New
Spain (1560), wherein he reports that the Aztecs mixed vanilla (tlixochitl)
with choclate.  I believe Clusius references it in his Herbal of 1602(?).

Vanilla first appears in English in the 17th Century and it's first
reference in cookery appears in Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery (1756).

Vanilla extract seems to date from around 1875 (although it may be earlier)
with the first of the vanilla substitutes.  Synthetic vanilla is first
processed about 1929.

Bear


>I read through the messages i've saved from this list about vanilla.
>We've discussed it a fair bit, but there seems to have been less
>discussion of extract - probably because it is out of period.
>
>I was wondering about the history of the development of vanilla extract...
>
>As far as i know, vanilla wasn't being used much in Europe "in SCA
>period", although it was known to Spaniards by the first quarter of
>the 16th c. and was used in the chocolate drink brought back from the
>New World.
>
>Anyway, i was wondering how the extract came about - i assume first a
>"tincture" of the pod/bean... but when did this occur? I didn't have
>much luck searching the web.
>
>I don't own a book on spice history. And i really need to get one.
>I'm considering buying Andrew Dalby's "Dangerous Tastes: The Story of
>Spices" (University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-22789-1, 2000).
>Reports posted to this very list suggest it may not go back as far in
>time as i'd like... but it sounds like something i'd enjoy reading.
>
>Any other books on the history of spices i really ought to have?
>
>Anahita