VanillaThe fascinating and wide ranging history of vanilla, from the sixteenth century to today Vanilla is one of the most expensive of flavouringsso valuable that it was smuggled or stolen by pirates in the early daysand yet it is ubiquitous. It is a key ingredient in dishes ranging from crme brle to Japanese purin. It is the quintessential ice cream flavour in the United States. Eric T. Jennings explains how the world's only edible orchid, originally