[Sca-cooks] Vanilla

[Johnna Holloway]

I just posted the following summary on vanilla to the subtleties list in January of this year. 


> From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
> Date: January 30, 2014 at 12:13:50 AM EST
> 
> I first did a long summary of research on vanilla back in January 2003
> 
>  in answer to a thread and queries on MK-Cooks. This was updated in 2014.
> 
> The Hugh Morgan association is very suspect, even if it appear on the 
> web and is repeated in the Florilegium.
> 
> "Then, in 1602, Hugh Morgan, apothecary to
> 
> Queen Elizabeth I, suggested that vanilla
> 
> could be used as a flavoring all by itself,
> 
> and the versatility of the exotic bean was finally uncovered."
> 
> http://www.nielsenmassey.com/historyofvanilla.htm
> 
> [note the source of the story]
> 
> This story is repeated in the Florilegium, but cites
> 
> another flavouring company.[And in 2014 kit is repeated in blogs and other websites with no sources listed.]
> 
> Oddly, enough Andrew Dalby repeats "It was Hugh Morgan,
> 
> apothecary to Oueen Elizabeth I, who is said to have
> 
> suggested the use of vanilla as a flavouring for other foods."
> 
> Dangerous Tastes, p.148.
> 
>  
> 
> If the Hugh Morgan connection is true, then the uses seem
> 
> to have been medicinal. It may well occur in medicinal recipes
> 
> in the 17th century, but there don't seem to be other recorded
> 
> instances or recipes in the literature to support the claim.
> 
>  
> 
>  From another posting---  Vanilla
> 
>  
> 
> OED lists this as the earliest quotation
> 
> 1662 H. Stubbe  Indian Nectar ii. 11
> 
> They added..the Vaynillas [to the chocolate] for the like ends, and to
> 
> strengthen the brain.
> 
> [No one on this list mentioned some of the more unusual aspects about 
> the naming   of the plant. SCA-Cooks would have leaped upon and spent 
> days on the fact that   the name is connected to the word vaina (:-L. va 
> gi na  vagina) meaning 'sheath'
> 
> .    Mark Morton's book Cupboard Love goes into the background of the 
> word for those interested.]
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway the date of 1662 would go along with C. Anne Wilson's comment in 
> Food and Drink in Britain that it came into use in England with the 
> preparation of chocolate as a drink. Through EEBO I looked at the 1662 
> copy of Henry Stubbe's The Indian nectar, or, A discourse concerning 
> chocolata the nature of cacao-nut and the other ingredients of that 
> composition is examined and stated according   to the judgment and 
> experience of the Indian and Spanish writers. It's the Harvard copy of 
> 180 plus pages that is available online.
> This does have recipes in English for making the drink using vanilla as 
> an ingredient. Stubbe cites several recipes including one recipe as that 
> being used by Antonio Colmenero de Ledefina which includes vanilla. One 
> thing that is valuable about this discourse is that he describes and 
> discusses all the ingredients that go into making the drink.
> 
>  
> 
> On page 52 he writes:
> 
> "The next ingredient of Chocolate is Tlilxochitl (or as some write   it 
> Tlixochil) or, as the Spaniards call it, banillas olorofas, or 
> Vaynillas=85. their smell is admirable, they which have parallei'd it 
> with Ambergrise, Musk,   or Balsame, failed in their Character for it 
> hath a peculiar mildness, and delicacy in it, not to be found in those 
> other." Stubbe goes on to fully describe the plant, the pod, and the 
> seeds saying that "Whosoever shall try these Vaynillas by the strength 
> and pentratingness of their smell, and perhaps by the vigour of their 
> effects, performing what nothing of European, or East-Indy growth, of a 
> less Degree in heat and dryness, then the third, doth; will rank them 
> with those of that sort but here who shall consult his   Senses, and 
> observe the mild delicacy in these American Products, and particularly   
> in the Vaynillas, which is inconsistent with so much heat, and dryness 
> and shall   consider, that his tongue feels nothing parallel to what 
> happens upon the tasting of a grain of Chili, or red Pepper (which yet 
> is placed as hot in the third degree) he will by many degrees separate 
> and distinguish the former from the latter=85." He concludes, "for to 
> use Cloves instead of Vainillas is a ridiculous mockage, and hurtful to 
> several complexions in Chocolota."
> 
>  
> 
> Another earlier work that mentions vanilla is A Curious Treatise of the 
> Nature   and Quality of Chocolate. It is given as being written in 
> Spanish by Antonio   Colmenero and put into English by Diego de 
> Vades-forte. It was published in English in 1640. It too lists recipes 
> for the drink. Listed among the other ingredients that go into "this 
> confection" is "another which they call Vinecaxtli, which in the Spanish 
> they call Orejuelas, which sweet smelling Flowers, Aromaticall and hot." 
> Page 14
> 
>  
> This answers the question: can we find recipes in English from before 
> 1650? Well, yes we can. I would also point out that by 1683 recipes 
> featuring chocolate with vanilla are being recorded in household 
> manuscripts. See Brears' The Gentlewoman's Kitchen for examples. Do not 
> be fooled however by the infamous "chocolate cream" featured in 
> Fettiplace. It does not date from 1604.
> 
> There are recipes for chocolate that use vanilla published in France by 
> M St. Disdier in 1692.
> 
> See Sophie and Michael Coe's The True History of Chocolate. pp.162-164. 
> She mentions Hernandez's account of an Aztec recipe for chocolate that inflames the venereal appetites on pages 
> 90-94. It also includes mention of vanilla.
> 
>  
> 
> One really weird place that vanilla can be found in a 17th century 
> recipe for   something other than a drink involving chocolate is in a 
> book of ices. Today   it seems second nature to think about vanilla ice 
> cream, but in the 17th century?  Actually yes!!! Elizabeth David notes 
> that she owned a copy of an Italian work (undated but definitely 17th 
> century) entitled Brieve e Nuova Modo da Farsi ogni sorte di Sorbette 
> con facilta. In Harvest of the Cold Months, David writes on page 150: 
> "An unexpected one, given the period, is vanilla, which evidently came 
> early to Naples via its Spanish overloads and their colony of Peru. A 
> vanilla ice in those days was not custard based but simply an infusion 
> of 1 large bean pulverized with sugar and immersed in 10 goblets of 
> boiling water."
> 
> 
> EEBO-TCP indicates that "vanilla" only appears in
> The manner of making of coffee, tea, and chocolate as it is used in most 
> parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with their vertues
> Author: Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre, 1622-1687. London : Printed for 
> William Crook ..., 1685.
>  
> 
> • ...r Pimiento, half an ounce of Cloves, three little Straws or 
> Vanilla's de Campeche, or for want thereof, as much Annis-seed a ...
> • ...Mexicans; but this Wood has nothing of affinity with our Vanilla's 
> which are used in making the Chocolate, the which are very pleasant to 
> th ...
> • ...Alexandria, vulgarly called pale Roses, a little Bean Cod or 
> Vanilla de Campeche, two drams of Cinnamon, a dozen of Almonds, and as ...
> 
> So that source really offers us nothing more than it did in 2003.
> 
> Of course if one searches in it under "Vinecaxtli" one can read that 
> recipe as given in
> A curious treatise of the nature and quality of chocolate. VVritten in 
> Spanish by Antonio Colmenero, doctor in physicke and chirurgery. And put 
> into English by Don Diego de Vades-forte.
> Author: Colmenero de Ledesma, Antonio. Imprinted at London : By I. Okes, 
> dwelling in Little St. Bartholomewes, 1640.
> 
> "There are also other ingredients, which are used in this Confection. 
> One called Mechasuchil; and another which they call Vinecaxtli, which in 
> the Spanish they call Orejuelas, which are sweet smelling Flowers, 
> Aromaticall and hot. And the Mechasuchil hath a Purgative quality; for 
> in the Indies they make a purging potion of it. In stead of this, in 
> Spaine they put into the Confection, powder of Roses of Alexandria, for 
> opening the Belly.
> I have spoken of all these Ingredients, that every one may make choise 
> of those which please him best, or are most proper for his 
> infirmities." page 14
> 
> There are two modern books that are available:
> 
> Ecott, Tim. Vanilla. Travels in search of the Ice Cream Orchid. 2004.
> Rain, Patricia. Vanilla. The Cultural History of the World's Favorite 
> Flavor and Fragrance. 2004
> 
> Both were published after our initial conversations on the topic. 
> Neither is indexed or footnoted as to sources.
> 
> Johnnae
> 
> 
> __._,_.___
> 
>                        	                        	
> 
> __,_._,___