Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance [Hardcover]

Patricia Rain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2004

It has seduced kings and comforted millions. Part culinary history, part cultural commentary, Vanilla tells the remarkable story of the world's most popular flavor and scent.

The Spanish considered vanilla the ultimate aphrodisiac, the Totonac Indians called it the fruit of the gods, and the Aztecs taxed the Mayans in vanilla beans, using the beans as currency. Today, vanilla is in our coffee, our perfume, tea, home products, body lotion, and just about anything imaginable.

Patricia Rain explores the incredibly diverse effect of vanilla on the worlds of food, medicine, psychology, and even politics. She intertwines the fields of cultural anthropology, botany, folklore, and economics, tracing the marvelous path of vanilla throughout world history. Vanilla shows how the impact and marketing of this ubiquitous little bean over the last eight hundred years saved the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Tahiti, put Madagascar on the map, drove the success of the great Parisian perfume houses and Europe's confection industry, and spurred trade routes across the Indian Ocean. Rain examines the rich history of vanilla with exacting detail and discusses its current role in our lives and the modern retail world, where the "vanilla boom" has caused the prices of many common consumer items to skyrocket.

Filled with fascinating insights, quirky characters, trivia, and even recipes, this beautifully written book is perfect for vanilla lovers, history buffs, and anyone interested in a real-life captivating story.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ever wonder how to tell mildew from crystallized essence on those vanilla beans in your cupboard? Ever hear about the 17th-century Jewish vanilla curers of Guyana? Need a recipe for Chipotle-Vanilla Salsa? Thanks to her extensive experience in the vanilla field (Rain's a vanilla broker, president of the Vanilla.COMpany, and author of The Vanilla Cookbook), Rain can discuss everything from the various international terms for the hand-pollination of vanilla flowers to the ethical issues raised by synthetic vanilla. In this surprisingly comprehensive survey, she takes readers through the history of vanilla production from Mexico to Indonesia, covering relatively obscure producers like the French island of Réunion, as well as Madagascar and the nearby Comoro Islands. While the vanilla orchid is sensuous and aesthetically pleasing, the story (as Rain presents it) of how various colonial powers subjugated indigenous producers to reap the profits from its cultivation is not as pretty. Rain leavens this sometimes depressing history with recipes, folkloric tales and personal vignettes. While few readers may want to drink even a modern adaptation of Aztec hot chocolate or prepare an Indonesian rice pudding with "black glutinous rice," pandan leaf and palm sugar syrup, Rain's advice on choosing and using vanilla in the home kitchen is quite useful. Photos, illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As the author notes, it is very odd that the term vanilla has come to represent plainness and simplicity. It only shows how much we have learned to take for granted the rare and complex flavor and perfume of the seedpods of this highly prized orchid. Although the origins of vanilla are shrouded in pre-Columbian Mexican history, Cortes and his troops became aware of it and chocolate at nearly the same time and introduced Europeans to vanilla's savory and olfactory delights. Rain meticulously traces vanilla's history and manufacture in Mexico and follows its gradual transplantation to other tropical climes. Thanks to hybridization and continuing strong demand for vanilla, plantations have sprung up everywhere the fussy vanilla orchid can flourish and wherever there is sufficient hand labor to cultivate it. Country by country, Rain outlines the history of vanilla production, the economic impact of its processing, and the unique local characteristics of each area's vanilla. Illustrations supplement the text, and recipes appear in sidebars from both historic and contemporary sources. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585423637
• ISBN-13: 978-1585423637
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,049,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All You Want to Know About This Amazing Flavor, May 1, 2005

By 

David Lebovitz (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance (Hardcover)

Here's everything you want to know about vanilla! I'm thrilled that someone with Patricia Rain's knowledge and passion has given readers and cooks such a comprehensive read. She even includes recipes and some intriguing uses for vanilla as a bonus (I'm making my own vanilla extract following her simple instructions.)

Anyone with an interest in baking and cooking, as well as the cultural and political issues associated with vanilla, will find 'Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance' a fascinating read. Want to know why that cheap Mexican vanilla isn't really a bargain (and isn't really vanilla)? Is there Bourbon in Bourbon vanilla? Why does vanilla vary so much in price and value? The answers are all in this book... I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this fascinating flavor that's captivated people around the world.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sweet read, July 21, 2005

By 

Newton Ooi (Phoenix, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance (Hardcover)

This book gives an ecological and cultural history of vanilla, one of the oldest "spices" known to man. The book itself is interesting to read, and can be finished in several hours. It covers many things of interest such as:

1. The book describes the plant vanilla comes from, where this fits within the botanical world. The book also goes into a little detail of the chemistry of vanilla, why it smells the way it does, what is the natural purpose(s) of this aroma, and what are similar plants like it.

2. The book describes how humans probably first learned about vanilla, how the use of vanilla slowly spread around the world, and how it is treated in different cultures throughout history (currency, aphrodisiac, status symbol, etc..).

3. The book shows with great detail how vanilla is used in fragrances and food dishes throughout the world. The book is replete with cooking recipes showing how vanilla can be used in salads, seafoods, soups, meat dishes, etc...

4. Last, the book explains the vanilla industry, from seed to final consumer, and shows how the various industries and countries take part in this truly global trade. The book also shows how modern agriculture and agro-science has affected the domestication of vanilla (not a lot), even though science has a fairly good grasp of where the smell comes from and how to extract it for non-edible uses; i.e. garbage bags.

Overall, this is an interesting book to read, and I recommend it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Vanilla Read, May 26, 2006

By 

Garrett M. Mccord "Protogarrett" (Nor Cal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance (Hardcover)

Vanilla is the only member of the orchid family, a family consisting of 90,000+ types, that has any edible properties. Vanilla is also used as an aphrodesiac to entice the opposite sex in the modern world, the same way it was back in the Aztec world. Of course it was also used to entice the Gods before a human sacrafice (reminds me of an ex I have *shudder*). Vanilla is also the cause for an unknown number of murders throughout history, flavoring your favorite foods, and is one of the most chemically complex compounds known to man! Vanilla, truly, is anything but vanilla.

Given, my book club was hesitant to read Patricia Rain, the Vanilla Queen's, newest book Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance. Food histories are rarely o the top of anyone's "Must Read" list, and why would it be when The Secret Life of... can condense it so much easier in a simple half hour serving? But I was able to convince them otherwise, and they for the most part, enjoyed it.

Patricia Rain is by no means a truly professional writer (pot calling the kettle black), as it is layed out much like a college thesis - chronologically, and by subject. Luckilly it doesn't read like one; most of the time that is. While some historical backgrounds of the sweet bean may drag a bit, the favorite flavors' fascinating and intriguing story always pulls you in and Rain's writing always catches you time and again.

Rain begins the book with a short rundown of how and where vanilla grows and subsequently the how and where vanilla is cured and processed. She then proceeds to take us through it use and history in Aztec culture such as the above mentioned people slaughters and seductions. The tale then weaves through it's migration to Europe where it is subsequently forgotten except as a component of hot chocolate. An interesting story here is one of a pastor baning the high society parishoners from having their servants bring them their hot cocoa and vanilla to church, consistently interrupting his services. He is soon dispatched of via poison. Fun, fun. It goes without saying that the next pastor is more than happy to allow steamy sweet drinks.

The book soon goes into vanilla's sudden boom in France and Spain. We also delve into it's explosion into America thanks to prohiobition, because bathtub vodka's flavor just demands to be covered up. Vanilla candy, and flavor was a popular choice much like orange juice (the birth of the Screwdriver) to create tasty boozy drinks, bringing on the phrase, "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker."

Luckilly she not only covers the social context and history of vanilla, but also it's significant standing in botany, religion, mythology, agriculture, and economics so the book in itself is quite complete. The pictures and "side bar factoids" are always welcome and help break up the sometimes monotonous vanilla musings.

Of course the book does have pitfalls. As I have mentioned before, the book does sometimes get itself in a rut. I think some of the European history chapters I just ended up skipping all together as it reminded me of dry cultural geography classes back in high school. The history section is also so long that I just started to randomly read the chapters in an order based on what sounded fascinating at the time. I think it just reads better that way.

The contemporary history is by far the most intriguing section where we see why Vanilla beans are so expensive with difficulty in cultivating them in addition to constant theft and murder over them being the main reasons (although the World Market has Tahitian beans for 2 bucks! I assume they somehow bypass the murder somehow...). Plus, it goes through the scientific experimentation as it is utilized as a perfume, aphrodesiac, and drug, each with quixotic, though not surprising, results.

Ms. Rain appropriately sprinkles in some vanilla recipes throughout the book, creating a mouthwatering read to say the least. I tested out a few of them and let me say they truly rock my socks. The Vanilla and Coconut Milk with Shrimp recipe is heavenly, though I suggest you add a bit of cayenne to give it some kick. Plus the Chipotle-Vanilla Salsa and Barbeque Sauce is a mind altering experience. It's really like nothing you have ever tried before! I lurvs me some vanilla and garlic, and this married the two together into a perfect spicy sweet union! The taste of this and all her recipes is a mix of ephemeral and exotic.

Overall I give this a 3 out of 5. People who like food literature like this will adore Rain's vanilloquy. The everyday reader... not so much. It is however a book that you can easily pick up at anytime and will make a gorgeous addition to your book or cookbook shelf!