Vanilla becoming the default flavour of ice cream is the greatest underdog story of all time.
Edit: thank you for educating me about the ubiquity of vanilla. Still, none of the other products that use vanilla seem to ever give credit to vanilla. They are usually named something else. Anyway, I have learned a lot about vanilla tonight and I now feel like I am a better man.
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Is there a cheaper alternative?
Edit: While I have your attention check to make sure you're on WiFi.
Well considering silver is worth garbage amounts of money right now I dont doubt it
Like saffron. Thank god you don't need much of those to get a good effect
I used to make my own vanilla extract by buying vanilla beans and soaking them in vodka for a few months. Over the last 2 years it became so expensive I can’t do it anymore. Now I just have to buy vanilla paste and be sad that it isn’t as good.
That depends on where you live, I think. My dad goes to Honduras to dive once a year and always brings back big bottle of vanilla. He buys it for about $20 a pint down there.
My dad went to Mexico and brought a bunch of vanilla back apparently it’s super cheap over there
It is the most labor intensive crop in the world, and the only orchid that people eat.
It's a good thing my dad grows and makes his own vanilla and give me a few pods whenever I go visit him. :)
We got a bag of Madagascar beans instead of a bottle of extract accidentally at my last job. Like half a pound or a pound. Over $500
I assume you mean per weight unit?
But considering it take much larger volume of vanilla, compared to silver, to attain the same weight (and considering silver is not “that” precious), I would say it is not a very surprising price.
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I think the most tragic ice cream flavour story is that of grape. Doesn't really exist. Test markets hate it, and it doesn't do well on mass production because the water content makes for tonnes of ice crystals that give the ice cream a horrible texture and will get freezer burn easily so it doesn't keep well. So sad.
I tasted some with dried grapes. And some ice cream makers try weird combos like meat ice creams.
I make some bastard version of ice cream at home and to prevent ice crystals and freezer burn I add a couple shots of rum. Keeps it creamy and doesn't change the taste too much. I've made about 12 different flavors, and while I've never thought of grape, this would be a great solution to the ice crystal problem.
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For those who haven't tried it, flavorless ice cream is massively underrated. If you go to a small ice cream shop, they usually sell it as Sweet Cream flavor.
EDIT: Wow, thanks for the silver. Really lively conversation about this. I'm not sure why I'm seeing responses like this, but I"m not talking about just shaved ice. Yeah... Sweet Cream is just sweetened cream flavor, but just enjoying the ice cream base that flavors get spiked into really let me appreciate how it's flavors are built into the food.
I never understood “sweet cream” as plain. But yes, it’s very good!
This post is endorsed by the Sweet Cream gang. Seriously, it’s the best “flavor”. It’s like you snuck into the kitchen and stole the ice cream base before they could add flavors to it, just cream and sugar and deliciousness
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Vanilla has always been my favorite. Lots of people use vanilla as a synonym for plain or boring but I think it's delicious.
Vanilla is also my favourite flavor of ice cream.
For this reason I though vanilla sex was a good thing for the longest time until a good friend explained it meant boring. I was offended on behalf of vanilla ice cream and embarrassed beyond belief at how dumb I must have sounded claiming how amazingly vanilla my sex was .
For me, if I'm buying ice cream and don't want to be stuck with one flavor, vanilla works great. You can eat it plain, mix in fruit, top it with chocolate syrup, etc. One thing I did before that worked: apples + graham crackers + cinnamon + sugar
I agree. Nothing is better than real vanilla ice cream properly made. It can also complement any fruit or pastry.
I maintain that vanilla would not be considered "plain" if it was any color other than white
Plus it's a good base for basically every topping imaginable. Everything you can put on icecream works on vanilla. Even the flavors for every other icecream. Chocolate sauce, sure. Strawberry syrup, load it up. Chocolate and strawberies, why not. Meanwhile the idea of putting peanut butter in strawberry icecream or butterscotch on chocolate icecream makes me ill. Damn I want icecream now.
I like that it’s come to mean more “default” in a lot of circles. Like, if you’re playing a video game, you’re either playing it with mods and expansion content, or the vanilla game. The original product was still a distinctive experience, it was just used as a base for the addition of other elements.
Right? Just because it’s white and common doesn’t make it plain. It is a flavor in itself.
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It's a rare extract from the pod of an orchid and has no right to be competing with the big guns of chocolate or strawberry. It started its life as an expensive additive to make an alternative type of chocolate - but now this little extract has become the dominant flavour in the world of ice cream. Yet it's nowhere when it comes to flavouring anything else. Ever heard of vanilla cake?
The original flavoring of the first mass produced american style ice cream was: yellow tomato.
It was churned by a donkey walking in a circle with the crank tied to his back.
The company that first sold this ice cream is still open in the reading terminal market in Philadelphia.
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for sure bro. have you ever tried actual "plain" yogurt? for years I thought vanilla was plain. but no there is this plain, kinda sour yogurt. It's ok with granola to sweeten it up in my opinion, but yeah, totally different from vanilla.
Plain yogurt is incredibly common in Indian cooking and is often served with a meal.
Is not knowing what yoghurt tastes like an American thing or something?
When it comes to plain yogurt, the higher the fat content, the creamier taste. Full fat plain yogurt is actually pretty good, and much healthier than vanilla yogurt with all the added sugars.
Is this a joke? Plain yogurt is extremely common and it’s significantly healthier because it’s not crammed full of sugar. Once you’re used to plain yogurt most flavored yogurt tastes like candy, which makes sense because some have as much sugar as a can of soda.
I used to eat plain ow fat Greek yogurt with a bit of granola in it for breakfast. You get used to the sourness and it tastes fine. I'm a fan of the Chobani brand. Not because its non GMO but because it tastes really good.
If you take plain yogurt and add a bunch of sugar to it it’s delicious.
dannon has amazing plain yogurt. but get the kind that's not "non fat".
Vanilla has been absolutely shafted. It is a flavor- like strawberry or chocolate. Not only is it objectively on the same level as all flavors (not "plain"!), it happens to be delicious and unique- unlike all these all-talk-no-game flavors like 'dragonberry' and 'passionfruit' 😤
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If you want to understand the quality of a restaurant or brand try a straight vanilla milkshake, it can taste amazing but won’t mask the flaws of other inferior ingredients.
Agree. Cherry vanilla is my favorite ice cream of all time. Perfect combo. Yuengling is a really good brand of it.
Chocolate often has other things like vanilla and espresso powder to enhance the flavor
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Right! It's always annoyed me that saying something is "vanilla" means it's plain or original.
Making ice cream: the cream is iced, sweetened, THEN flavor is added; strawberry, chocolate, pistachio, caramel, etc. Vanilla is just another flavor like the rest.
It’s the default in Italy. Milk Gelato is very popular there I believe.
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What do you mean valuable? Per gram?
That probably has more to do with how hard it is to grow and how potent it is.
If you are just talking in terms of flavour, it gets absolutely crushed by simple table salt.
It's just way easier to make salt, and you need more of it.
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ITT: people who have no idea what real vanilla tastes like.
Real vanilla is incredible.
Vanilla has one of the most complex flavor profiles naturally. The fact that the word is synonymous with bland or basic is hilarious to me.
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The default flavor of ice cream actually used to be "Just Ice". Wasn't too popular among the kids though.
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Vanilla became the default because its a bloody fantastic flavor. Even the artifical stuff tastes great.
Its become increasingly seen as mundane out of familiarity, but i don't really see how this is any sort of underdog story.
maybe anachronistically it is an underdog. "Who would have guessed, little old vanilla?"
vanilla is the best. Best base , never get sick of it. Assuming it's good vanilla and not some cheap crap.
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You wouldn’t think New York is very tasty. Perhaps tastier than Paris.
Because vanilla is fucking delicious. Rivaled only by maple, or perhaps good chocolate (not ice cream).
And most chocolate ice cream has too much chocolate, so it usually loses by default. Strawberry is usually hit, sometimes miss, but you always start with good vanilla and add fresh and / or preserved strawberries. No reason not to have it all. Chocolate bar on the side, or crumbled in at your leisure. Maple syrup only for diabetes overload.
Source: former Minnesotan, grower of strawberries, maker of ice cream, eater of gallons of maple syrup, and perhaps close to a ton of ice cream.
I only had a good maple icecream the first time a year ago. So damn good. Been trying to find a comparable one since.
My boyfriend who is 24, a college graduate, mostly straight As/ Dean's list student, who is excelling at his big boy job and exceeding their expectations... Up until a couple months ago he believed vanilla came from cow's milk . He claims plain milk tastes like vanilla to him and thought vanilla ice cream really was just "plain."
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Don't badmouth my vanilla, that shit is scientifically proven to be the most complex naturally occuring flavor molecule we know of.
A TIL I could have done without, but am probably better for have learning
If "sweet cream" is a flavor option instead of vanilla, get it and thank me later.
Seriously wtf is vanilla considered "plain" or "bland"?
Fuck no I'm not using vanilla soy milk in my scrambled eggs
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Vanilla is a common base in a game like ice cream that is all about the toppings. Vanilla works best with others.
The flipside of that is the common topping of whipped cream, that is a nonchalant topping that allow the cake/ice cream/cupcakes and toppings to shine.
Vanilla and whipped cream are selfless bases that make others the hero, that is why everyone likes them.
I thought vanilla was “plain” ice cream until I had sweet cream ice cream.
Before people had access to vanilla, rose water was the vanilla of its time. Then vanilla came along and kicked rose waters ass.
Vanilla is the most complex flavor the human palate is able to discern. It's not bland, it's distinguished and satisfying. Unfortunately, we use the term 'vanilla' to to refer to something that's bland.
I guess our culture has equated ubiquity and lack of color with blandness. Vanilla is the default ice cream and most popular flavor because it is the best tasting to most people. It's ubiquity has nothing to do with blandness, quite the opposite in fact.
You only need to add one flavor profile to chocolate ice cream and that’s peanut butter.
That's because chocolate ice cream is the worst, most boring form of chocolate.
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I often get vanilla not because it's the best but because I'm usually overloaded with 50 other choices. If there were only 2 choices of ice cream and it was vanilla or Ben & Jerry's Half Baked I think we all know what would become the default flavor.
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Vanilla ice cream is the most versatile. You can modify it in limitless ways. My personal favorite is hot fudge and a little caramel.
Vanilla is unexplainably good. If I can't get mint choc chip, vanilla would definitely be my go to option
In the baking world it’s not really an underdog tho. Kind of a key ingredient in a shit ton of recipes. Like the salt of baked goods
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Unpopular opinion.
Vanilla ice cream is better than most flavors and chocolate ice cream is shit and doesn't even taste like chocolate
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Fun fact: vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world (the first is saffron)
The reason vanilla ice cream has a bad rep is because the stuff you get at the store is shit with vanilla flavoring. Get an ice cream maker and real vanilla and do it yourself. You’ll never buy the crap in the store again.
Extremely unrelated but when I was younger I was high with a few friends, I ordered a vanilla milkshake and one of them turned to me and said “why did you buy that? Couldn’t you have just bought milk?”
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Vanilla activates more tastebuds than strawberry and chocolate. It has a more sophisticated and complex flavour palette, so it’s ironic that it’s shorthand for plain, default or boring.
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I don't know where you got this... vanilla is an actual flavor and not just the absence of other flavors. Look at the ingredients list for any vanilla ice cream.
not in my country. default flavor is salep here.
also high quality ice cream is definitely not cream, it's solid. we actually bite it.
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Actually, a handful of patriots that left England and removed the letter u from every word and lead to the rise of the best nation in the world is probably the greatest underdog story of all time.
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With vanilla you can add anything you want to it to change it. Or eat it by itself. Just don't buy food lion brand. As it tastes like liquid plastic.
Vanilla in sweet baking is like the umami flavour in savoury. It adds so much depth, boosts other sweet flavours and is thus found in so much baking
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