> IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla It's a well known fact of cooking, natural van

> IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla It's a well known fact of cooking, natural vanilla denatures above a rather low temperature (around 50°C or so, if I recall correctly) but artificial vanilla doesn't. So if you're using vanilla in... crème anglaise (apparently that's the English name for it?) you should use artificial vanilla or pay much attention to adding the vanilla only after it has cooled down enough, but if you're doing ice cream then natural vanilla is a good choice.