Vanil and Vanilin - the same thing, what's the difference?

From this article you will learn how Vanilin is doing and how it differs from a real vanilla.

Content

Vanil and Vanilin - What is the difference between these two spices? There is a vanilla from which vanillin gets? You might think that vanillin is extracted from vanilla pods. But no, Vanillin is produced in chemical plants, and from this vanilla he has only a chemical formula and smell.

Vanil and Vanilin - what's the difference?

We’ll say right away that there is a deception everywhere, and Vanil and Vanilin are not the same thing at all.

Real vanilla grows in pods. She is quite expensive. You can find alcohol extracts with natural vanilla. For them, the same pods insist in strong alcohol. There is also vanilla sugar with a real vanilla. But this is a rarity, and in ordinary stores they sell sugar mixed with synthetic vanilla.
Vanillin - This is a synthetic substance that smells like vanilla. Vanilla and Vanillin have the same chemical substance in their composition. But Vanilin is a chemical analogue of oil refining products. However, vanillin is considered a safe food supplement.
Ethylvanilin - This is a more modern analogue of Vanilin. It is also obtained chemically. It smells three times stronger than ordinary vanillin.
Fragrance "Vanilin" Sometimes on packs you can read it in the composition. Such an inscription means that Vanillin contains the composition, and it does not mean anything more. Vanillin is a food supplement and a flavor. But here he has no code, like a food supplement. Because it is very widely used. Such popular food additives as vanillin and potato starch do not have their own codes.

Sometimes experienced cooks are asked how vanilla differs from Vanilin? And they answer that they differ like strawberries and strawberry flavorings, or as a lemon and citric acid.

Vanilla and vanillin differ, like lemonade made of real lemons and a carbonated drink with flavorings and citric acid.

Complex growing natural vanilla

Vanilla is the second most highly spice in the world. Only saffron is more expensive than her. Vanil is an orchid. And the yellow flower that we are used to see on the packaging of vanilla ice cream or cheese - just imitates the flowering of orchids.

Now one vanilla pod costs from 200 rubles.This is if you order on the Internet and still pay for delivery. The cooks say that half of such a pod is enough for a kilogram of baking. However, the recipes are very different. But we can conclude that natural vanilla is not the cheapest spice.

Vanilla is from Mexico. There it grows like a beautiful and big orchid liana. Farmers cling these vines to trees, for example, on tangerines, because they cannot stay without support. Now vanilla is pollinated manually. Once in Mexico it was done by bees of a special type, but they effectively cannot cope with this work. And the work of bees lies on the shoulders of farmers.

According to Wikipedia in the world, 12,000 tons of vanillin consume 12,000 tons of vanillin. And natural vanilla produces only 1,800 tons.

From Mexico, Vanil successfully moved to many other countries and took root there. True, not everyone suits her, only the equatorial climate is suitable for vanilla.

Now vanilla is mainly grown in such countries:

Madagascar (this is the country of the world leader in production).
In Malaysia.
In Singapore, which is adjacent to Malaysia.
Mexico is the birthplace of vanilla and one of its main manufacturers.
China grows about 10% vanilla in the world. But if on a pack of vanilla sugar it is written that it is made in China, then it is probably synthetic. Because the world leader in the production of artificial vanillin is also China.

The vanilla is also collected manually. You need to have time to tear off the vanilla pod when it just began to turn yellow. To do this, use high ladders and with their hands tear off only those fruits that are suitable for the production of spices right now.

Then the vanilla is poured with hot water and dried in the furnace. But the most time -consuming stage in the production of vanilla begins later. She is dried for a very long time. Enterprise workers take vanilla pods in the morning every day, and bring them back to the room at lunch when the sun begins to fade. And so it lasts two months until Vanil dries. People tried to speed up this process, but nothing good came of it and Vanil lost its quality.

Each vanilla flower is pollinated manually. Often this is done standing on a stepladder. — Each vanilla flower is pollinated manually. Often it is done standing on a stepladder

What is vanillin and how they do it?

Vanilla and Vanilin are the same in the chemical formula. Scientists have already found a chemical in vanilla more than two hundred years ago, which gives it the same aroma familiar to everyone. But the chemical composition of this vanilla is much more complicated than this substance. And when they say, how vanilla differs from vanillin, they indicate that a real vanilla has a more complex and multifaceted taste and smell.

A real vanilla, unlike vanillin, is able to paint milk or cream in brownish color. Sometimes on this basis the real vanilla paste is determined, and whether it really includes natural vanilla.

When the chemical formula of Vanilin was found, it began to be made from cloves. But it is also difficult to collect and process cloves, so they were looking for other ways of production.
Vanilin managed to get as a by -product of wood processing in the production of paper. But aggressive chemicals participated in this process of production, so this method of production was also discarded.
Modern vanillin is made from oil products. It is considered a safe food supplement, in the quantity in which it is added to the products. If you eat a lot of vanillin, then it is conditionally cure.

What is the difference between vanilla and vanillin? Vanil, as a rule, arrives in Russia in the form of pods neatly folded in boxes. And Vanilin arrives in large paper bags. Then it is poured into small bags or mixed with powdered sugar for retail trade. A large amount of vanillin is also sent for food production.

How does Vanil differ from vanillin? Vanilin in bags and the factory that produces it

Vanil and Vanilin from bags

On the shelves of supermarkets, you can find many bags from different manufacturers. They can be written on them "Vanillin", "Vanilla sugar", "Vanilla sugar with natural vanilla". Let's try to deal with all this variety, and find how vanilla differs from Vanilin.

In the picture below, vanilla sugar of one of the Russian manufacturers. It contains only sugar and natural vanilla. We ask not to consider this an advertisement, vanilla sugar with a real vanilla is produced by other brands. This product is taken for example.

Be careful when buying vanilla sugar. The packaging may indicate that the composition has a natural vanilla. But if you read the composition, sometimes you can find in it: sugar, vanillin, vanilla. This means that there is much more artificial vanillin in such a bag than real vanilla. In real vanilla sugar vanilla Must be in second place after sugar.

There are other marketing moves of manufacturers who mislead customers. The most common trick is the image of flowers and pods of vanilla on a pack, inside of which artificial vanillin.

You already know how Vanil differs from Vanilin. Remembering this, let's study Vanilin’s packaging of one of the Ukrainian manufacturers.

Vanilin and marketing passages of manufacturers

Real vanillin - The inscription informs the consumer in large letters on the packaging. The manufacturer did not lie - this is a real vanillin produced at one of the chemical plants in China. There is no vanilla in it.
Vanillin is thermal -resistant - The manufacturer is not lying again, but in principle, any vanillin can be frozen. Whether this vanillin loses the aroma slower when heated than others is a question.

Conducting manufacturers are recommended to mix vanillin with a fat base so that it loses the aroma slower. It can be a cream or waffle filling. You can use the same trick in your kitchen.

At the back of the packaging, we can again read what it is pure vanillin without impurities.
Then we are informed that other manufacturers mix vanillin with maltodextrin and powdered sugar. It is replaced by the flavor "Vanil" and "Ethylvanilin". According to the marketer who wrote this text - this is done to reduce the cost of the product. But let's figure it out in order. Many housewives love vanilla sugar because it is difficult to overdo it. Maltodecstrin is a safe food supplement that is sometimes used in baby food. The flavor "Ethylvanilin" is the same vanillin, but more volatile. It smells stronger, and let it disappear faster.
In the end, we can read that the country of origin Vanilin is China. Well, yes, China is the main manufacturer of Vanilin in the world. Large packages with Chinese vanilin are traveling around the world.

Vanilla sugar is very different: with a natural vanilla in the composition, with synthetic vanilla, and with ethylvanilin, which is also synthetic.

We read the composition: Vanil and Vanillin what's the difference?

Liquid vanilla extracts

From natural vanilla, you can make not only vanilla sugar, but also vanilla extract. For this, strong alcohol is taken, usually it is rum or whiskey. Several vanilla pits are placed in a bottle of alcohol and insisted for about two months. Such alcoholic extracts can be bought in stores.

Vanilla extracts from real vanilla may vary in saturation. One manufacturer can put only 2 vanilla pods on one bottle, and the other as many as 5.
There are alcohol vanilla extracts in which there is no natural vanilla at all. Read the composition, if it indicates vanillin or vanilla flavor, then the product is not natural.
There are still sweet patho pastes with vanilla. In this form, natural vanilla opens well and retains its aroma.