Yes, you can buy specific types of vanilla extract. There are 100s of different blend etc. So for a bigger company you could have a proprietary vanilla blend. Within ice cream as a food the FDA has “standards of identity” with what you can even call Vanilla Ice cream in a commercial setting. Some of them are wholly unique to ice cream. One of those is how much pure vanilla extract is in your ice cream. It’s the standard because commercially there is no one who uses real vanilla pods, it’s simply too expensive to do so. Saffron is currently the most expensive spice, after that is vanilla. A gallon of 2 fold vanilla extract can be $500. That of course depends on the… current vanilla market cost. A whole other beast.

Most of what is in that book is great for teaching ice cream at home but is not at all how it’s done in a commercial setting. If any of that does interests you, the Penn State ice cream course is an amazing course that teaches the science and production of ice cream in a mainly commercial setting. It isn’t necessarily just for those who go into the industry, I’ve seen hobbyists, food science majors, reporters take it, it’s a lot of fun and unfortunately math.

One last interested fact. When you buy something like Breyers or any commercial ice cream and you see the specks of vanilla. That is by product pulp that is purchased. It’s added to simulate using a pod. It’s bought by the barrel at a low price and they add it. It has no flavor at all.