Homemade Vanilla Extract

Are you horrified at the price of vanilla extract? Me too. I really go through the stuff sometimes, and I am horrified at a $5 (or more) price tag for a measly 2 oz bottle that I could use up in one recipe. So to remedy this dire situation I have decided to make my own.

I ordered some vanilla beans - a few Mexican and a few Ugandan (randomly chosen just to compare). The process is so easy, I don't know why I didn't do this long ago. All you need is some moderately strong alcohol of your choice - vodka, rum, bourbon, etc - nothing fancy or expensive please, the vanilla is going to do the flavoring, so cheap booze is fine. Cut several vanilla beans in half to splay them open then place in about 8 oz of alcohol - or put more beans in a bitter bottle. I made them right in the bottles I bought the alcohol in. Mexican beans in gold rum and ugandan beans in vodka. Place in a dark cool location in a cabinet and forget about it for a while. Just give it a shake now and then when you think about it. Ideally this should sit for about 8 weeks to reach good potency to use for cooking. Mine have been going about 4 weeks now, I open them up and smell once in a while.

The beautiful thing is that you can continue to replenish your vanilla stock with this method. Don't take the beans out, and continue to top off your bottle with more alcohol now and then. If you use vanilla beans in cooking, don't throw them out, you can put the spent pods right in the bottle as they have more flavor to give and the alcohol will extract it.

The cost:
vanilla beans are about $1 each (cheaper if you buy in bulk) and can be found at many stores nowthe alcohol cost me about $4 for an 8 oz bottle

So I had a total cost of about $7 for 8oz, which I can continue to replenish as needed. I'm sure I could go much cheaper with the alcohol too if I bought bigger bottles from a discount store.

Vanilla Day 1

Vanilla Week 4