Desserts · Plate VII

Vanilla

Vanilla planifolia

A climbing orchid from the forests of Mexico and Central America. Its fleshy green stem clings to trees with aerial roots, and its leaves are thick and flat: hence planifolia, “flat-leaved”. Its yellow-green flowers last a single day.

Far from home it has almost no insects to pollinate it, so on plantations it is pollinated by hand, flower by flower. The method was discovered in 1841, on the island of Réunion, by Edmond Albius, an enslaved twelve-year-old boy, and it is still used today.

The fruit, a long green pod, barely smells when picked: its aroma develops during a slow curing of several months, as it turns dark brown and supple. The Totonac people of Papantla, in Veracruz, have grown it for centuries. Its name comes from the Spanish vainilla, “little pod”.

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