The Black Spice...

[ThePieMan]

Ahhh the Black Spice...

Garlic:
it seems the current favoured theory is that is is oxidised/caramelised and aged garlic, Black Garlic. I make black garlic: it takes approx. 2-3 weeks to slow cook the bulbs until they are fully black right through. You can do something similar with onion but the texture suffers. Now, you can also roast or deep fry garlic to make it black, then dehydrate it and pulverise it into a powder. I have never had any success in doing this, as my black garlic remains gummy and chewy. The color of black garlic powder is dark to dark grey. Mc Cormick's seem to currently sell it.

Vanilla:
A cursory search for "Vintage Vanilla" seems to overwhelmingly indicate that the primary, domestically available vanilla, was imitation vanilla essence, or vanilla extract, sometimes with tonka bean added to it. These extracts were liquid and most frequently clear and uncoloured. However, concentrated vanilla extract appears to be brown. What is of great interest is that Parr's book Spice Handbook, 1945 makes no mention of vanilla whatsoever. What we can conclude is that at the time of writing, Parr, a spice miller, was not milling vanilla pods (a seed) into a powder.

Nigella:
Nigella seed, (black carraway, etc.,) does not seem to have been an imported spice back in the day.

Black Limes:
Black Lime powder is actually orangy-brown in colour.

[haveatit]

I'm not bashing Vanilla, but can someone explain to Me how it can be in the Ingredients, if it's not on the Federal: "Other Herbs and Spices" 1970's Category?

I recall reading an article, on How Col. Sanders was in the Kitchen w/ the Big Whig Corporate Exects, teaching them How to Cook the Fried Chicken Correctly. (Since they were essentially screwing their Image and Profit Margins on grounds of altering their received recipe to inferior products, and minimal Spices and Herbs.)

Needless to say, they needed a crash corse in Making Southern Fried Chicken.

After Years of them Fuddling up the Recipe.

If My Memory Serves, (during My study) it appeared that they made the Federal Update on what could be classified (Till this day) as "Other Herbs and Spices", was the Year right after He re-taught them.

[cascader]

Apr 8, 2022 2:12:22 GMT haveatit said:

I'm not bashing Vanilla, but can someone explain to Me how it can be in the Ingredients, if it's not on the Federal: "Other Herbs and Spices" 1970's Category?

I recall reading an article, on How Col. Sanders was in the Kitchen w/ the Big Whig Corporate Exects, teaching them How to Cook the Fried Chicken Correctly. (Since they were essentially screwing their Image and Profit Margins on grounds of altering their received recipe to inferior products, and minimal Spices and Herbs.)

Needless to say, they needed a crash corse in Making Southern Fried Chicken.

After Years of them Fuddling up the Recipe.

If My Memory Serves, (during My study) it appeared that they made the Federal Update on what could be classified (Till this day) as "Other Herbs and Spices", was the Year right after He re-taught them.

I haven’t noticed much new activity with respect to vanilla in recipes, and don’t use it myself, but it did apparently fill a sensory perception for some researchers.

The guidelines are confusing, but below is some info that may help.  Unfortunately there are a number of legal “loopholes”  in the guidelines that result in an ability to hide things; as jwoz mentions from time to time: if it is listed, it is in the ingredients, but not being listed is not a guarantee it isn’t, and I would add, especially as extractives and modified ingredients come into use.  One shouldn’t assume the listing is made with the consumer in mind.

Per these older interpreted guidelines, onion and garlic, for example could now be listed as flavor, (along with many other interesting labeling tips and tricks), and so perhaps that is also what vanilla would be labeled in your time frame?

www.meatinstitute.org/FoodSecurity/1995AllergensAct.pdf

CFR 182.10 includes vanilla for reference.
www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-182/subpart-A/section-182.10

Current vanilla regulations are detailed here:
www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=169

And the overarching doc is here:

www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=101&showFR=1&subpartNode=21:2.0.1.1.2.2
I believe Note 3 in sub part B at the top of the doc is what allows garlic and onion and vanilla to be listed as flavors. The reference to vegetables in Note 2 at the top of the doc is to exclude them as spices, and adds a little confusion.

The current US nutrition guide lists an OR breast as containing:

Fresh Chicken Marinated With: Salt, Sodium Phosphate and Monosodium Glutamate. Breaded With: Wheat Flour, Salt, Tricalcium Phosphate, Nonfat Milk, Whey, Potato Starch, Egg Whites, Maltodextrin, Triglycerides, Food Starch- Modified, Natural Flavor, Colonel's Secret Original Recipe Seasoning.

I am unclear on what labeling latitude is available when spices cover a gamut of weights vs natural flavor weights.  Does the ordering imply the heaviest natural flavor is heavier than the heaviest spice?  Or is there no implication, because natural flavor would fall in the middle of the spice weights somewhere and so the manufacturer gets to choose, and putting “natural flavor” higher on the list looks healthier?  If anyone knows or can provide a reference please chime in. 



haveatit, Do you happen to have a web reference to the rules you were referencing in 1970 and an associated KFC ingredient list from that era?

[jwoz]

When I first started on this path I was very intrigued by recipes that used vanilla, and I cooked a lot of them.

I found that it is a difficult ingredient to use because it very quickly stands out in the recipe, even when used in small quantities, so it can only be used in amounts that are below the level of identification, thus making one wonder what it is doing in the recipe at all.

For a host of reasons, including those that TPM stated above back in 2020, I came to doubt that vanilla was an original ingredient in the OR.

I came to the view that perhaps it would be more fruitful to ask what people "back in the day" were aiming for, flavor-wise, when they were using vanilla.  A look through descriptors of the various flavors that people perceive in vanilla, such as those at the following link, may be informative and may bring to mind some of our recent conversations on other threads. 

www.slofoodgroup.com/blogs/recipes-stories/how-to-describe-the-flavor-of-vanilla-beans

[willy]

There are five universally accepted basic tastes that stimulate and are perceived by our taste buds: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. CHS's family hinted that his last recipe should be the last one because it had captured the "Universal" taste. A universal taste must encompass the entire tongue. It must be so balanced that the tongue detects only "ONE TASTE", the "Note".

[cascader]

Adding Cassia Buds to the list of black spice candidates.

Vial C does appear to have some short, crooked, stick like features in it, and a few ball indications, which are hard to see.

silkroadspices.ca/products/cassia-buds

As a bonus, they are supposed to be much lower in coumarin than cassia cinnamon.
Coumarin is also apparently an enzymatic browning inhibitor.

Cassia buds were listed in some of the Stange patents for extracts and while not common now, seemed to be more common in the past.
They are a little bit expensive today, although like cloves, probably not many are needed.

The peppery flowery note is interesting, I know that turned Ken away from his version of allspice.
I wonder if any versions of the CHS OR ever had a hint of a flowery note. Or if it melds and becomes indistinguishable.

[cascader]

Adding Lemon Verbena to the list.
It has bluish purple flowers and seed pods with tiny black seeds.
The flowers would change colors when heated per acrylic awards websites.

[willy]

And purple basil is reddish black. Also, aged cayenne is blackish. I posted photos of some of mine years ago.