Confectionery Vanillin

Full name of the product: Confectionery Vanillin

Confectionery vanillin is the only “aristocratic” spice that is made of an orchid species (found in Mexico). The spice is made of the pods of vanilla vines rich in various aromatic substances. Vanilla pods are harvested green while they have no flavor or odor of vanilla and contain vanillin in the form of a glycoside. After being harvested, vanilla pods undergo a months-long curing process during which their flavors develop, and sometimes crystallized vanillin may be visible on the pods. Vanilla, obtained in the result of the long, complex curing, is used in gastronomy. There are eight sorts of vanilla. It is one of the most expensive spices as vanilla pods contain not more than 1 to 3% of vanillin.

The global demand for vanillin has long exceeded the actual supply of vanilla extracted from vanilla pods. For exampled, according to statistics from 2001, the annual demand for vanillin was 12,000 tons, but only 1,800 tons of natural vanillin were produced. The remainder vanillin was artificial, that is produced by chemical synthesis. Vanillin was first synthesized in the 19th century. For the first time in history, it was synthesized from guaiacol. Now crystalline vanillin is synthesized from both guaiacol and lignin, a byproduct of the sulfite process for making wood pulp. Vanillin produced from lignin has a fuller bodied aroma due the presence of apocynin.

Crystalline vanillin has a classic vanilla smell. It is produced in the form of fine white crystals or powder. Vanillin is heat resistant and preserves its qualities even after heating to 200 to 250°С for 25 minutes. It is widely used for baking bread and pastries, and for ice cream production. It dissolves in water at 75°C and in spirit at 20°C.

Origin

Vanilla vines grow in the Caribbean, South America, Ceylon, Malaysia, Madagascar and Reunion (50% of production), Seychelles, and Polynesia–in Tahiti and Hawaii. Crystalline vanillin is produced in China, America, Canada, and Europe.

Taste and color

Vanilla taste is pleasant and specific. Crystalline vanillin has a bitter taste but, when dissolved in water or spirit, it reveals its true, marvelous flavor and taste and can be added to food. It may be also added in the process of mixing dry ingredients (for example to flour).

Vanillin has a more expressive, strong smell than vanilla.

Uses

Vanilla and vanillin are used in liqueurs and other beverages, pastries and desserts. It is most popular and delicate spice that is usually added to fruit compots, dairy foods, and cake creams. Vanilla is used for flavoring of the most expensive confectioneries. It is recommended to dissolve crystalline vanillin in water or vodka with sugar and used the resulting syrup or mix it with other dry ingredients (flour or sugar, 1 to 10 grams per 1 kg of dough) before cooking. As different vanillin may reveal its taste and flavor to a different extent, it is a good idea to test a dosage first on a small amount of food.

Vanillin may be added to taste to compots and liqueurs.

Interesting Facts:

From Wikipedia: Vanillin was first isolated as a relatively pure substance in 1858 by Nicolas-Theodore Gobley, who obtained it by evaporating a vanilla extract to dryness and recrystallizing the resulting solids from hot water. In 1874, the German scientists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann deduced its chemical structure, at the same time finding a synthesis for vanillin from coniferin, a glucoside of isoeugenol found in pine bark. Tiemann and Haarmann founded a company Haarmann and Reimer (now part of Symrise) and started the first industrial production of vanillin using their process in Holzminden, Germany. In 1876, Karl Reimer synthesized vanillin from guaiacol.
In 1874, Tiemann and Haarmann’s original synthesis was published. At the same time, semisynthetic vanillin derived from the eugenol found in clove oil was commercially available. The patented formula of synthetic vanillin became known in 1874.
Synthetic vanillin became significantly more available in the 1930s, when production from clove oil was supplanted by production from the lignin-containing waste produced by the sulfite pulping process for preparing wood pulp for the paper industry. By 1981, a single pulp and paper mill in Thorold, Ontario supplied 60% of the world market for synthetic vanillin. Today, the most common method of vanillin production is synthesis from guaiacol and glyoxylic acid.
The largest use of vanillin is as a flavoring in sweet foods. The ice cream and chocolate industries together comprise 75% of the market for vanillin.