FoodBanter.com - View Single Post

at Tue, 26 Oct 2004 14:53:29 GMT in
>,
(PENMART01) wrote :

>> (Naomi Darvell) writes:
>>
>>Overall, I think a good store-bought extract will work better than most
>>homemade ones. But stay away from the synthetic stuff; use real
>>vanilla!
>
>That's no longer true. Human sensory perception is incapable of
>detecting any difference between modern vanilla flavoring and natural
>vanilla...

I tend to believe that any statement to the effect that "human perception
is incapable of... {pick arbitrary sensory limit here}" sets the person
making it up to be shown wrong by somebody. I think it's unwise to make
limits on what human systems can do because there always seem to be people
who can transcend the limits of what is believed possible. I do like to
relate the story of the HP graphics expert who claimed that any resolution
above 2000*1500 on a 20" screen is indistinguishable by the human eye, when
many people can quite readily distinguish between 600 and 1200 DPI on an 8
1/2" * 11" sheet of paper (6600*5100 vs. 13200*10200) with no problem.

The difference between natural and artificial vanilla in *anything* is
dead-easy to spot. Artificial vanilla has a distinctive citrus twang to it,
quite distinct from natural vanilla with its rounder flavour. Natural
vanilla also has a fuller flavour, where the artificial stuff always tastes
thin, like the *initial* flavour of vanilla, with none of the later flavour
development. With some experience in what you're looking for, it's easy to
spot the differences in things such as chocolate chip cookies, bittersweet
chocolate, yellow cake, virtually anywhere where vanilla is used and
certainly within the definition of the poster's baked-goods category.

There's also a difference between vanilla extract and vanilla bean. A baked
good that uses vanilla beans will have, again, more depth of vanilla
flavour and no alcohol traces left over - even with proper baking I find
things that used extract often taste a little boozy.

I find that there is at least an extent to which you get what you pay for.
More dollars doesn't *automatically* mean something is better, but
generally, you should expect that a high-quality item will be more
expensive, *on average*, than a low-quality one.

Where snobbery comes in is, at the high end, there are sometimes products
that are disproportionately more expensive than other high-end products of
approximately equal quality. Thus, when you reach the high end, you need to
exercise some discretion as to when you're paying too much. The other way
snobbery can come into play is when the person who's prepared to pay more
than the commodity price for low-end items believes that the person *not*
prepared to pay more (or perhaps not in a position to pay more) is
inherently a lesser person for doing so. That, I believe, is the worst kind
of snobbery - feeling the need to diminish others because of the choices
that they make. But simply stating that there *are* real differences in
quality that can mean higher price for better quality isn't snobbery.

--
Alex Rast

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