Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans

Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans

Known above all for its incomparable taste and its subtle aromas, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans is the fruit of a climbing orchid, vanilla tree, which is mainly found on the Red Island called Madagascar.

Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans is mainly used in cooking in desserts and perfumes. Historically, vanilla originated in Mexico, but today Madagascar is one of the largest vanilla producing regions. Tahiti meanwhile produces less but on a high-end niche.

Characteristics

The vanilla pods from Madagascar called Bourbon are fine and flexible with sometimes marks or scarifications made by planters to fight against theft.

Its aromas are elegant and delicate. This vanilla is the best known, but the food industry has overused its name and the perception of its aromas with its chemical syntheses!

During cooking, the vanilla pods from Madagascar deliver an aroma that diffuses everywhere. It is an aroma that is very persistent.

Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, from its scientific name Vanilla Planifolia or Vanilla Fragrans:

It comes from Madagascar but can also come from Reunion Island, the Comoros Archipelago, Nossi-Bé, but also from Seychelles strangely, because all the vanilla originating in the Indian Ocean benefit from the Bourbon appellation.

It has a warm and delicate fragrance, very floral, with subtle hints of cocoa. It is the vanilla species that have the highest levels of natural vanillin.

The pods are naturally very fatty, even if it is customary, especially on Reunion Island, to dry it before using it. They are very long, between 12 and 22 cm, but quite thin, between 3 and 8 mm, and quite light, between 3 and 5 g.

Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans in the kitchen

Cut your pod lengthwise to extract the seeds. You do not have to open it over its entire length, a few centimeters will be enough, so you can reuse it several times!

Separate the pod in 2 and scrape the inside of this half pod using the blade of your knife to extract the seeds. The seeds thus obtained will now mix perfectly with your preparation.

We can recover the 2 emptied half-pods, either to flavor your jar of sugar and make vanilla sugar or to incorporate them into your recipes but in principle, they are not eaten.

Let the seeds (and the rest of the pod) heat for ten minutes in the milk without bringing it to a boil. The longer the seeds remain, the better the flavor will be permeated.

Note that vanilla sublimates all desserts, as such, it goes very well or can even replace the use of tonka beans or roasted acacia seed powder in recipes.

You can use it to flavor your teas and infusions, like our gingerbread flavored black tea or our organic spiced rooibos.

Vanilla goes very well with white meats and coconut milk preparations. Turmeric and ginger are his favorite dishes of friends!

How to store Madagascar bourbon vanilla

To properly store the vanilla pod from Madagascar, it must be stored in a dry room away from light and any temperature shock. The vanilla only supports the large temperature variations.

To keep its vanilla and all its flavor, it is necessary to apply a few small rules which are more or less the same for all spices, i.e. store them:

• away from light

• away from heat

• away from humidity

Among the classic mistakes, beware of containers with corks, because cork promotes the development of mold on vanilla pods.

A glass, or iron, a container in a cupboard will be fine. If you can coat the pods with waxed paper it is even better, this is how it is stored in producing countries. Otherwise, you can put your pods in parchment paper and make a foil.

If you have a lot, make a bunch of pods by stringing them with raffia or natural fiber, this will keep their moisture and flexibility as long as possible.

You can put them in the freezer if you want and let them thaw quietly before use. Watch out for sudden temperature differences, she hates that! I am not a fan of this technique.

If you follow all of these tips, you will easily keep them for 8 months up to 1 year optimally. Then, they will keep for years but will lose flavor and moisture.

Be careful, you can sometimes see a kind of frost on the vanilla pods, except on the vanilla from Tahiti, but don't get me wrong, it is not mold, quite the contrary! This kind of frost is a sign of quality, it is the crystallization of vanillin which gives all the flavor to the spice. However, contrary to many beliefs, this does not improve the aroma of vanilla.

Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans are an indispensable flavoring additive for sweet foods. Many good cooks automatically flavor their sugar supply with one vanilla bean per cup of sugar. If you slice the vanilla bean down the middle and then into 1/4” pieces, the inner seeds become exposed and impart greater flavor to the sugar. You can also add a vanilla bean to your box of powdered sugar: excellent for rolling warm cookies in, and lending fine flavor to butter cream frosting.

Suggestion: You will find whole vanilla beans called for in creme brulee, creme anglaise, most dessert sauces and custards, in making really good ice cream or frozen yogurt, or infusing your own liquors. In making custard, the vanilla bean is usually cut in half, then allowed to steep in the milk or cream. Then the vanilla seeds are scraped out and added to the custard, while the remaining pod is removed. The leftover pod can be rinsed and dried, then added to your sugar canister for wonderful vanilla-flavored sugar.

4 Ounce Contains from 23 to 26 Vanilla Bean Pods

Ingredients: Madagascar burbon vanilla beans

Packaging: Vacuum-sealed Plastic

Product of Madagascar