Ground Vanilla Beans

[Bruiser]

I went to The Chocolate Show yesterday, and during Gina DePalma's demo (for Date-Chocolate Budino ) she mentioned the ground vanilla beans.

She gets it from Mr. Recipe (Aaron Isaacson), who doesn't sell to the public. As far as I know, he's only accessible to top chefs. Anyone have any idea where I can find this product? It's far superior to the Neilsen Massey Variety, or any other I've encountered.

Does anyone have any knowledge as to get ahold of this product? It eliminates the aggravation of splitting and scraping hundreds of vanilla beans.

Thanks!

[Fat Guy]

I see this all over the place. I think if you Google it, you'll find that many of the online vanilla purveyors have a ground vanilla product on offer.

[mrose]

I went to The Chocolate Show yesterday, and during Gina DePalma's demo (for Date-Chocolate Budino  ) she mentioned the ground vanilla beans.

She gets it from Mr. Recipe (Aaron Isaacson), who doesn't sell to the public. As far as I know, he's only accessible to top chefs. Anyone have any idea where I can find this product? It's far superior to the Neilsen Massey Variety, or any other I've encountered.

Does anyone have any knowledge as to get ahold of this product? It eliminates the aggravation of splitting and scraping hundreds of vanilla beans.

Thanks!

←

You can also get ground vanilla from the Arizona Vanilla Company. Or if you have some older dried beans, do your own.

Edited November 10, 2007 by mrose (log)

[alwang]

Pardon my ignorance, but what are these ground beans, exactly? Beans that are dried, then ground whole: seeds, husk, and all? And what would you use them for, as opposed to just the seeds?

Edited November 10, 2007 by alwang (log)

[Fat Guy]

Correct. Dried, whole, ground vanilla beans. Much of the flavor is in the seeds, however using the whole ones gives visual bang: it makes things like vanilla ice cream and creme brulee look like they have a ton of vanilla in them. It also has the benefit of being a form of vanilla with no alcohol, which can affect cooking. Some operators will even buy "post-extracted" (sometimes called "exhausted") ground vanilla beans, in other words beans that have already been used to make vanilla extract (sometimes more than once), then have been dried and ground. These contribute a little vanilla flavor but mostly they just look like vanilla flecks -- then you enhance the flavor with extract, perhaps artificial.

[Bruiser]

when i spoke to gina about it, she says its not something one can do on their own.

some kind of special process apparently. i asked if it was possible to grind it up, after the beans had been ground, but apparently you don't get the same result.

and the quality is far superior to whats normally found on the market.

most of the ground vanilla can be equally substituted ( 1t extract for 1t. ground vanilla)

the one she used is 4x more potent.

I'll ask my guy from Paris Gourmet if he has something, but I doubt it.

Thanks for the help

[Beanie]

See these links:

vanilla.com The description confirms Fat Guy's statement about using it with extract.

Saffron, Vanilla Imports Third photo from bottom of page, chopped up vanilla beans. Not the same thing as above, but interesting nonetheless. I've been meaning to try it, but I wouldn't filter out the vanilla specks as they suggest.

[Terrasanct]

Is it a paste or a powder? I grind my old beans and use the powder for various things, one of which is to put some in the coffee grinder when grinding coffee beans to flavor the coffee.

[andiesenji]

You can make a very strong vanilla paste by grinding the fresh, plump, full-flavored beans but you can't use a spice grinder.

You need a "poppy seed grinder" and these have more uses than just for poppy seeds.

This looks like a minature version of the old-fashioned food mill and is adjustable but grinds very fine.

I have one that was made in England forty-some years ago and I use it for things that simply are not workable in a blade-type spice grinder, i.e., anything containing moisture. For instance, ginger that has not been completely dried, - dried bilberries and etc., that still contain a certain amount of moisture and are impossible to soak long enough to become soft enough to process in a blender.

Fresh herb seeds that are not completely dried - fennel, dill, coriander, etc.

I rarely believe people who say that an item such as this is not available anywhere else and there is a "special" process for making it that is impossible to duplicate.

Last March I posted a recipe in this thread, post # 108 for vanilla paste that is very strong and has none of the preservatives and thickeners that are in some of the commercial products.

I have since made two small batches myself and they turned out nicely. I made one batch with the xylitol in the recipe and made the other with glycerine (availalbe at your local health food store), and noted very little difference in the intensity of flavor or in texture.