April 17, 2020 – Making Vanilla Extract

Enough of the heaviness. Because this has been a hard week, lets end on a happier note.

On my shopping list this month was vanilla extract because we have been doing a lot of baking lately. I almost fell over when I saw the price. I swear it was more like $15 the last time I bought it. Last time I checked, I think it was around $8 for 2oz. at the grocery store. Thirty-one dollars for 16oz. seems reasonable given that comparison.

Interestingly enough ‘America’s Test Kitchen’ did a comparison several years ago comparing real vs. artificial and the various options for vanilla extract. You can watch the video here.

I figured that I could make it cheaper and get the real thing. Will it be as good? Time will tell.

I ordered some beans online. I dug out some old bottles, that I plan on making root beer in the next couple of days. I bought some cheap whiskey, and then I topped it off with cheap vodka. In a couple months, it will be ready.

Researching recipes, I found quite a bit of variation in the ratios. But it all came back to the same theme: Beans, alcohol and time. Some of them suggested refilling the containers when the alcohol is empty… I don’t know about that unless we cant wait to break into the first one.

It wasn’t totally sure, but I thought I had 16oz bottles. They turned out to be 24oz. I originally bought one 750ml bottle of Canadian whisky, but I was about 350ml short so I topped it up with vodka. So, I made 48oz of extract for $31.

Using my formula above, I probably should have put all of the beans into one bottle. The other wildcard is whether the bottle I am using will be adequate for dispensing. When I run across another bottle that will work better for dispensing, I may transfer out of the current container.

At the worst, you can drink the bottle if you don’t like the results. Enjoy.