.
.
.  French Real Vanilla Bean Powder and French Real Vanilla Bean Sugar.
      Thank you Mme. St. Ange; thank you Julia Child; thank you John Thorne & Matt Lewis Thorne.
.

..
.             pic here of Julia Child with the three Penzey kids, also with just Patty, also with just Ruth & I.
.
  Current Prices, Real Vanilla Bean Powder & Real Vanilla Bean Sugar.   Mme. St. Ange formula.  Due 2/1/05.
.                                             
         1.  Real Vanilla Bean Powder ( concentrated ).  Exactly the same strength as pure vanilla extract.
.
.        2.  Real Vanilla Bean Sugar ( cut 6 to l ) for " on the table " use.
.
         3.  Real Vanilla Bean Sugar ( cut 6 to 1) for " on the table "use, made with French caramelized  sugar cubes.
         .
 Mme St Ange:    one vanilla pod ( a nice fat one, about six of these would make up one oz by weight: 100 to the pound. ).
                    plus 30 grams sugar cubes.  Slice vanilla pods ( also referred to as " vanilla beans " ) open lengthways, not
                      down the centre but rather sliced open; in half, along the edges, so that all the vanilla oleoresin specks are
                      visible and available to be trasnsferred in with the sugar f rom the pounding of the sugar cubes.
.                               After slicing beans open, cut into fine pieces only 1/20th of an inch in width.
.       but now no need to do the tedious pain staking cutting into fine 1/20th of an inces pieces ....  see next line .....
.
                        This is where the new style Magic Mill comes in very handy, as it takes all the work out of things.
         In Escoffier's kitchen, a young cooks helper was given the task of pounding the vanilla pieces & the sugar toether
          in a large mortar, of stone, using a wooden pestle, wooden so as not to break ( thank you Jill Norman for
           pointing this out to us there in Old Town in Chicago when we made this & you were kind enought to  do the
              translating there in the back; in the veranda area where the saffron flowers are planted ).
.
    to make what Mme St Ange called " vanilla sugar " one takes the above pure vanilla powder ( exactly equal in strength
    to pure vanilla extract ) ...... and increase the amount of sugar from 30 grams up to 150 grams total ( about 1/3 pound ).
.
     Formula for " vanilla sugar " then, is:   one nice 1/6 oz. vanilla pod plus 5 oz of white sugar.
       Formula for " pure vanilla powder ", her terminology, is:   one nice 1/6 oz vanilla pods plus 1 oz. white sugar cubes.
.
more to come on the making of this yet ....................including pictures.
.

What follows below here is quite rare information about the time tested & more traditional uses of the vanilla bean.
.Why this excellent traditional kitchen tested for some 200 years way & method of using vanilla beans is not
    included in food literature of the last fifty years is surprising to me.  Ruth & I originally came across it when
studying the classic Issue No. 25 of John Thorne & Matt Lewis Thorne's food newsletter SIMPLE COOKING.
In this issue Mr. Thorne published the results of the letter he had sent to all his subscribers.  Well, if you know about
this extremely well done; even more than that; as it really is food literature.  Literature, yes.  His letter has asked his
subscribers the question, something like, if you were stranded on a desert island with only one cook book, well,
which cook book do you value so highly that this is the one you might want to have there?  And if you are familiar
with the food writings of this man, and you know that his 2,000 or so subscribers are the elite of the food writing
establishment in the English speaking world; here in the USA mostly, but also in England and even other countries.
So it is quite a thing to see these " names "; food writers of such stature; all sending John & Matt their idea of which
cook book is valuable " to them " and why.  Well, altho John asked for one cook book reference, Julia Child sent in
a little about two cook books ( perhaps even three? ) ..... first was " The Joy of Cooking " the American classic ......
and secondly a cook book that is popular in France, but which most of us Americans are not familiar with.
The Cook Book of the Cooking School of Mme. St. Ange.  Well, one thing led to another after Ruth & I ( and the
other younger Spice House apprentices who work with us ) read & re read her comments, we decided that we should
like to have this volume as a permanent part of our Spice House library of cook books ( which is quite extensve; some
500 volumes! ) ..... and we were fortunate to actually have a conversation with Julia Child about this book, and we even
, Ruth & i, decided to buy it for daughter Patty's birthday one year ( Dec. 29 ) .... and we asked Julia Child if she might
inscribe it over to daughter Patty for her birthday, which she did.  Jan Longone of  the acclaimed Wine & Food Library
in Ann Arbor, Michigan obtained a copy for us; we forwarded it to Cambridge Mass. where Julia Child lived, and she
was very kind indeed to write a little something in itl directly to daughter Patty ( they had cooked together one time, show pic).
..
When Ruth & I started to study this French cook book, we found this really excellent reference to the use of the vanilla
bean in France.  The information given by Mme. St. Ange appeared to be a detailed & informative instructional " how to "
use real vanilla beans, & appears to have the ring of authenticy of the method  used for perhaps 100 to 200 years in France.
It was after about 1900 .... that the liquid " pure vanilla extract :" became popular in American ( and then spread to England? )
but up until then the method detailed by Mme. St. Ange was the way the spice vanilla was prepared by master pastry chefs.

........................................................................................................................................................................................
Julia Child and Mme. St. Ange and preparing a lovely real vanilla bean sugar.
.
In fact, Mme. St. Ange shows us how to make two different strength levels
of good real vanilla bean sugar..... One strength level is exactly the same
strength as using a pure liquid vanilla extract ...... the second level is a more
delicate real vanilla bean sugar which is used as a delightful vanilla sugar
sprinkle on dusting for strawberries, waffles, toast, ect.
.
Below we will show you the French explanation from Mme. St. Ange's
book ....... and then after that we will translate it for you.
.
How did we learn of this best selling French classic cook book?
In John Thorne's SIMPLE COOKING, issue 25, summer 1989,
He asked his readers to give a favored cook book review.......
Julia Child reviewed two cook books and this CUISINE French book
was one She talked highly of.  And in fact we were able to buy a copy of
this book, send it to where Julia Child lived in Cambridge, MASS., and She
very graciously signed it over to our daughter, Patty, (it was Patty's birthday gift),
and mailed it back to us here in Wauwatosa from Cambridge, MASS.
.
LINK HERE to frontis page of Mme. St. Ange's book
.
LINK HERE to Julia Child's autograph
.
LINK HERE to photograph of Mme. St. Ange
.
LINK HERE to Julia Child's book review in John Thorne's SIMPLE COOKING,
issue 25, summer 1989
.
LINK HERE to French vanilla sugar page from Mme. St. Ange's book
.
LINK HERE to our spice-work.com translation into English.
     ( The question about what literature is, real literature rather than just writing,
        in our case here about a food subject....... might we attempt, to do this with
        the translation? )
.
LINK HERE to ? Patience Gray's ? translation about vanilla in the classic
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COOKING, which was reviewed as one of
M. F. K. Fisher's selections....... also in John Thorne's SIMPLE COOKING,
issue 25, summer 1989
.
How is this connected?  Well, Mme. St. Ange asks you to begin with a beautiful large
vanilla pod in order to make your real vanilla bean sugar.  How might one define a
beautiful large vanilla pod?  Patience Gray gives us a clue or two in her writing.
 
.
Julia Child and Mme. St. Ange and preparing a lovely real vanilla bean sugar.
.
In fact, Mme. St. Ange shows us how to make two different strength levels
of good real vanilla bean sugar..... One strength level is exactly the same
strength as using a pure liquid vanilla extract ...... the second level is a more
delicate real vanilla bean sugar which is used as a delightful vanilla sugar
sprinkle on dusting for strawberries, waffles, toast, ect.
.
Below we will show you the French explanation from Mme. St. Ange's
book ....... and then after that we will translate it for you.
.
How did we learn of this best selling French classic cook book?
In John Thorne's SIMPLE COOKING, issue 25, summer 1989,
He asked his readers to give a favored cook book review.......
Julia Child reviewed two cook books and this CUISINE French book
was one She talked highly of.  And in fact we were able to buy a copy of
this book, send it to where Julia Child lived in Cambridge, MASS., and She
very graciously signed it over to our daughter, Patty, (it was Patty's birthday gift),
and mailed it back to us here in Wauwatosa from Cambridge, MASS.
.
LINK HERE to frontis page of Mme. St. Ange's book
.
LINK HERE to Julia Child's autograph
.
LINK HERE to photograph of Mme. St. Ange
.
LINK HERE to Julia Child's book review in John Thorne's SIMPLE COOKING,
issue 25, summer 1989
.
LINK HERE to French vanilla sugar page from Mme. St. Ange's book
.
LINK HERE to our spice-work.com translation into English.
     ( The question about what literature is, real literature rather than just writing,
        in our case here about a food subject....... might we attempt, to do this with
        the translation? )
.
LINK HERE to ? Patience Gray's ? translation about vanilla in the classic
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COOKING, which was reviewed as one of
M. F. K. Fisher's selections....... also in John Thorne's SIMPLE COOKING,
issue 25, summer 1989
.
How is this connected?  Well, Mme. St. Ange asks you to begin with a beautiful large
vanilla pod in order to make your real vanilla bean sugar.  How might one define a
beautiful large vanilla pod?  Patience Gray gives us a clue or two in her writing.