Has anyone ever made their own vanilla?

A

amanda_pennsylvania

Well-known member
I read about this on the Washington Post food chat today. Chatter didn't give a recipe, but I thought it might be fun. Would make great holiday gifts...

 
Yep--beans in cognac. Though I use the commercial stuff too. I used to buy my vanilla extract from

a Greek lady who had a dusty, jumbled store. Many people didn't like her store, they thought it was dirty, but I loved exploring there, and she always had every obscure ingredient you could ever need. One day I went for vanilla, but she'd run out. Then she signalled me to wait and said, "Just for you," and reached under the counter and handed me a half-full bottle of Crown Royal. "Cognac," she said, and I saw that it was her private stock, brandy and vanilla beans.

She retired soon after that, and the new owners turned the store into a fancy, high-priced place, but I still have her bottle, and replace the beans every few years and top it up with good cognac -- and always wonder why on earth she had this home-made vanilla stashed under her counter. And why she would deem me a worthy recipient!

You can, of course, use grain alcohol or vodka if cognac strikes you as too decadent.

 
aha, I knew that vanilla had alcohol, but now I know why I cannot get it shipped to Alaska, by any

vendor. Many Alaskan villages are "dry" and you cannot import, or possess any liquor. Where I live, it is not "dry", thank goodness, but the postal service does not know where the shipment may end up, so vanilla is not allowed to be shipped anywhere in AK. at least that was their explanation. I wanted to order the nice paste with the seeds from Amazon, and other vendors, but no one would send them to me. Good thing I have a good friend in Sandi Hawaii who gifted me some. smooch!

 
In the bottle the Greek lady gave me, the beans were whole, and so I've just done what she

did. Splitting would of course release seeds, which you may not want in the final product (though I can't think of anything right now where visible seeds would be undesirable). The pods I use are fairly fresh and soft to begin with, but if I had drier ones I might consider bruising or splitting them.

For beans in vodka, I'd leave it maybe two or three months at least. Probably your nose will tell you when it's ready.

 
how many beans to a liter of cognac? Is the taste preferable to vodka? (I don't drink.... so

don't know the difference between cognac and vodka)

 
Yes, there's no avoiding the cognac, so it's not a wholesale replacement for regular extract. But it

is beautiful in a custard sauce, for instance, and some cakes and cookies.

If I didn't also use store-bought extract, I'd probably steep beans in a good-quality vodka. Some people also use rum (presumably light?). Grain alcohol is available through our Ontario liquor stores, but you need a doctor's prescription or some such silly thing. It can also be harsh and unpleasant, though.

 
Whatever you want, really. My half-full 1-1/2-cup bottle has four beans in it. I just

looked at a recipe in a book, and it says 3/4 cup vodka and 2 split pods, leave them for at least four months. To jump-start, add 3 Tbsp pure vanilla extract and store for two months.

 
I use 2 vanilla beans to 1 cup vodka. I split the beans before adding them

to the vodka.

I let the beans soak in the vodka in a glass jar for 3-4 months.

 
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