Here you'll find descriptions of ingredients from the recipes on this site that need explaining. This is not an encyclopdia or lexicon, the information is rather arbitrary. A lot of the information on these pages is from The Oxford Companion to Food, van Alan Davidson and Tom Jaine.
This page got longer and longer, so now (December 2010) I have decided to give each letter its own page. Here on this page there is an overview of all ingredients mentioned.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Vanilla - Together with potatoes and cacao, the vanilla pod (Vanilla planifolia) is one of the ingredients originating from the New World. Nowadays vanilla is mainly grown on islands in the Pacific Ocean. The flowers have to be pollinated by hand, because the hummingbirds and insects that take care of that in Central America are absent in the Pacific region.
Vanilla pods are the 'fruit' from the vanilla orchid, a climber. The pods are harvested before ripening, steamed and fermented. If you cut the pod open lengthwise you can scoop out the very small black seeds to use in dishes. You can also use the pod itself, but that has to be removed before serving.
You can also buy synthetic vanillin, which is a lot cheaper, but also a lot less in flavour. Recipe: Moutayes.
Verjuice - The juice of sour, unripe grapes that was used in the Middle Ages and up to the eighteenth century. You can still buy it, but you may have to look for it. In the Netherlands verjuice was also made from unripe apples and sorrel. You can use applecider vinegar as a substitute. Make your own Verjuice. Recipes: Blackberry sauce, Meatballs in head lettuce, Eggplants in eggplantsauce, Medieval stuffed chicken, Civé d'oeufs.
Vin Santo - Sweet Italian wine from Tuscany. Is drunk as dessert wine. See Wikipedia for more information. Recipe: Zabaglione.
