An unusual recommendation from Cooks

If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, you know I heart Cook’s Illustrated very much. Their recipes rock, and I love their taste tests and equipment tests, which are sort of like a kitchen version of Consumer Reports. One of the reasons I adore their reviews is that they often find that the most expensive kitchen item is not the best.

Generally, though, when they rate foods, the more natural, real items(like Parmesan Reggiano) win over cheaper, more processed foods(like Parmesan in a green jar). So, I was surprised when I read that they had pitted imitation vanilla against real vanilla and found that the imitation vanilla was just as good(and sometimes better!) than the real stuff.

This is good news for frugal bakers like me, who hate to pour a tablespoon of vanilla into a recipe! Cook’s does caution that imitation vanilla is best used in baked goods(cake, brownies, cookies) and not in uncooked foods(frosting, pastry cream). Most of my vanilla goes into baked goods, so my real vanilla consumption has gone way down since I read this tip, and my food tastes just as good.

The large-ish bottle of imitation vanilla in the picture up there only set me back $.89, and an equal amount of the real stuff would be more like $5-$7. So, go buy a container of the imitation stuff and use it with abandon!