130 Years of sweet Tradition: Vanilla Sugar and Cooked Pudding

Sweet birthday with a guarantee of success

For 130 years, Dr. Oetker Vanillin Sugar and Dr. Oetker Original Pudding Vanilla Flavor have offered consistent quality in the field of baking and desserts that consumers can rely on. As a true all-rounder, our vanillin sugar is practically part of the basic kitchen equipment: according to an internal study¹ , 89% of consumers use Dr. Oetker vanillin sugar for baking, e.g. for cakes, tarts and other pastries, 61% to refine sweet dishes such as desserts, spreads or cream and 57% to make desserts such as vanilla pudding, vanilla ice cream for instance. A good 25% of respondents use it to decorate cakes and desserts and 10% to refine hot drinks such as coffee or tea. No matter which pastry or dessert is involved - the popular aroma gives all kinds of delicacies the typical, aromatic taste of vanilla. In addition to the well-known classics, it can also be used to sweeten fresh strawberries, mix delicious milkshakes and refine frostings for cupcakes.

Vanillin can also be found in our Dr. Oetker Original Pudding vanilla flavor - one of the oldest and most popular flavors in the range of cooked puddings. Even today, it still leads in the popularity rankings ahead of the chocolate and cream flavors². Dr. Oetker Original Pudding is the all-time classic among Dr. Oetker's wide range of dessert products, loved by the whole family and bringing a sense of pleasure to dessert enjoyment. This is also confirmed by a study: pudding powder is enjoyed more often at the weekend than during the week and is preferred as a dessert with the family³.

History: Sweet desserts and fine vanilla flavor for everyone

For many of us, dessert is the pinnacle of a delicious meal and an essential part of everyday culinary life. But that wasn't always the case. In fact, from a German perspective, the concept of a sweet dessert is relatively new and has only been easily available to the majority of society since the 20th century. Dr. Oetker had a considerable part in this development. 

Advertisement from the 1920s for Dr. Oetker cooked pudding.

The synthesization of vanillin

Today, real vanilla is known as the second most expensive spice in the world just after saffron. Although vanilla has been available in Europe since the 16th century, most people were unfamiliar with its delicious aroma for a long time due to its high price. The Spaniards brought the spice from Central America.

However, all this changed with the discovery of the flavoring substance vanillin in the middle of the 19th century. Vanillin was first isolated in 1858 by the Frenchman Nicolas-Théodore Gobley. Wilhelm Haarmann and Ferdinand Tiemann succeeded in synthesizing it in 1874 in the tranquil town of Holzminden, but their process was still too costly. 

Synthesized vanillin was finally ready for the market thanks to the work of chemist Karl Reimer in 1876, who developed the process for extracting vanillin from eugenol, which at the time was isolated from the plant Eugenia aromatica. This reduced the price of the end product to a fraction of the original cost. Production on an industrial scale could then begin. The cheaply synthesized vanillin made it possible for poorer sections of the population to enjoy what is still the world's most popular aroma. 

Dr. Oetker has been producing vanillin sugar since 1894. When it was introduced, a bag of the product cost ten pfennigs, the same as a packet of Original Backin baking powder. In contrast to real vanilla, it was therefore extremely inexpensive. A large number of recipes were developed for the new product.

In contemporaneous baking instructions from Dr. Oetker, real vanilla was often replaced on a one-to-one ratio by vanillin sugar.

Werbung für Dr. Oetker Vanillin Zucker aus dem Jahr 1914

Where does the pudding come from?

The old English phrase “The truth is in the pudding” suggests that pudding has a long tradition in the British Isles. In fact, the term “pudding” can be traced back to the 13th century in historical English sources. However, people of the time primarily meant a dumpling made from meat, fat and dough. Well-known variants are black pudding or Scottish haggis. Sweet varieties first appeared in Great Britain in the Victorian era*. The term was adopted in German, for example for dishes similar to dumplings. Milk pudding in the modern sense didn't become popular until the end of the 19th century. 

* The Victorian era in British history refers to the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901.

In the 13th century, people understood a pudding to be a savory dumpling made from meat, fat and dough. A variation of this is the Scottish specialty “haggis”. The dish con-sists of a sheep's stomach filled with heart, liver, lungs, kidney fat from the sheep, on-ions and oat flour.

“Instructions for use” for the preparation of Dr. Oetker cooked pudding from 1910.

The production of such a milk pudding was not easy, especially with the resources of the time. Dr. August Oetker therefore developed a powder that could reliably be stirred into boiling milk without the addition of eggs. Customers were thrilled, as there was a great demand for easy-to-use products that were certain to succeed.

In 1894, the pharmacist from Bielefeld launched the first of these pudding powders on the market. From today's perspective, the variety of flavors on offer was astounding. In addition to the classics vanilla and chocolate, there were also strawberry, pineapple and orange flavors. In 1898, Dr. Oetker added raspberry and lemon to the range. The industrial production of flavors now made it possible to offer a colorful and almost unlimited variety.

Price list for pudding powder from the year 1898 with further information on “flavors” and special additives.

Beloved classic

Over the decades, Dr. Oetker has developed a huge range of dessert products that would have been unthinkable without vanillin. The main protagonist undoubtedly remains the cooked pudding. It is not for nothing that Bielefeld is sometimes referred to as “Puddingtown”, where the scent of vanilla occasionally wafts through the air. The original product range was expanded in 1907 with almond-flavored pudding powder and in 1912 with the premium product Gala. In the 1930s, rum, raisin and arrack flavors were introduced. From 1949, there even was a coconut flavor. Over the decades, the product developers have obviously been extremely innovative - as they still are today. However, it is the classics that have stood the test of time on the market and still provide that special comforting feeling when enjoying a delicious pudding.

Source¹: Interne Studie zu Vanille-Produkten, n=113, 2021

Source²: Nielsen Handelspanel, LEH+DM, Dr. Oetker Kochpudding, MAT KW13 2024, Absatz konv. In Tsd.

Source³: Omnibus Umfrage „Verwendungsanlässe Dessert“, n = 1.513, 2020