Sheldon wrote:

> Katra wrote:
>
>>In article >,
>> Wayne Boatwright > wrote:
>>
>>>On Fri 01 Apr 2005 11:07:03p, Bob wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>>>
>>>>Katra wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>I'm curious as to what might be used to grind the husks. It seems that
>>>>>>they'd be too damp and sticky to work well in a burr grinder, and
>>>>>>they'd also be too sticky to work in a blender-type grinder. I thought
>>>>>>a meat grinder mechanism would work, but you'd have to have a *lot* of
>>>>>>vanilla beans to make that worthwhile, much more than I generally have
>>>>>>on hand.
>>>>>>
>>>>>Well, I "grind" fresh ginger in the food processor along with fresh
>>>>>rosemary and other fresh herbs.
>>>>>
>>>>>I just add enough liquid to it to get a good slurry going. I use
>>>>>whatever "flavored" liquid I plan to add to the final dish, even if
>>>>>it's just a little bit of liquid from the few canned ingredients I use,
>>>>>such as canned straw mushrooms.
>>>>>
>>>>>I imagine that you could add milk or cream, or even sugar water to a
>>>>>food processor with the vanilla husks to get them finely chopped?
>>>>>Then of course, there is mincing with a good old fashioned chef's
>>>>>knife. ;-)
>>>>
>>>>I tell you what: YOU try grinding vanilla beans that way and let me know
>>>>how it works! I'm perfectly willing to believe you, just not willing to
>>>>make the experiment first. :-) I've also processed ginger that way, but
>>>>I think ginger is a lot less leathery and sticky than vanilla.

>>>I find it works well if you put sections of the vanilla bean in with dry
>>>granulated sugar - no liquid.
>>>
>>>>>I've heard of making vanilla sugar the way you describe, but I've never
>>>>>tried it. How long does it take?
>>>
>>>It obviously depends on how much your grinding. At most, a very few
>>>minutes.
>>>
>>Now that is a clever idea!
>>The dry sugar would keep it from being sticky!

Scrape the inside of the pods very well to get out as much of the paste
as possible - it should feel almost dry. When that's done, chop the pod
into pieces, add the sugar (or flour or cornstarch or whatever dry
ingredients seem appropriate) and whirl it in a processor or spice mill.
Do it until the pieces are small enough to suit you. It can run from
seconds to minutes. You'll have better results doing it with dry
ingredients than wet. In water or milk, the pod pieces will just be
pushed around through the liquid. They'll eventually be broken down a
bit, but nothing like with the dry materials. There's more resistance to
their being pushed, so they break down more quickly.

> Yeah, clever... and novel too... now that it's written why don't yoose
> copywrite vanilla sugar, right alongside cinnamon sugar.

<LOL> Poor, sulky, intransigent Sheldon. Has to keep on and on about
what he's so dead wrong about. Proven wrong, demonstrated to be wrong,
refuted at every turn... so he takes little shots from the periphery...

Poor, defeated Sheldon who *still* doesn't understand what copyright is
and isn't. He can't seem to grasp that you don't have to *do* anything
for copyright to accrue. It's automatic, like sunrise and Sheldon's
vulgarity.

Pastorio