[Sca-cooks] Vanilla [was: Sweet chocolate, Modican chocolate (OOP -- maybe)]

[Terry Decker]

To my knowledge, the earliest recipe reference to vanilla is in Hanna 
Glasse's Art of Cookery (1756).

One of the earliest (if not the earliest) reference to the use of vanilla is 
in Bernardino de Sahagun's General History of the Things of New Spain. 
Carolus Clusius obtained a specimen from the English Royal apothecary in 
1602.  The name "vanilla" appears to be first used by Willem Piso in 1658, 
becoming widespread afterwards.  All of this suggests that vanilla was 
available as a curiosity in Europe during the latter half of the 16th 
Century, but general acceptance and use probably occurred about a century 
later.

Bear

> Thanks for correcting that. My mind had been on Madagascar being the major 
> vanilla producer today. So the Spanish would have been familiar with Aztec 
> chocolate drinks flavored with vanilla, or honey, or hot pepper, or maybe 
> even all three. And the presence of vanilla in sweets is thanks to the 
> Spanish as well ... Do you know, or does anyone know, how quickly did 
> vanilla show up in recipes?
>
> Gianotta