Homemade Vanilla Extract

[Frugal Meg]

A friend brought me the ingredients as a get well gift (so I'm not sure the cost of the ingredients).
3 vanilla beans (mine came from www.VanillaProductsUSA.com)
1 cup vodka
glass jars

Slit the beans lengthwise - all except the last 1 inch on each end.
Pour vodka over. Shake and store in glass jars in a dark place. Wait 2 months. Shake. Can refill with more vodka.

Lots of web information on this.
Frugal Meg

[momma_to_seven_chi]

This recipe is such a great idea. You can make any tincture that way, be it echinacea, feverfew, oregano,etc....
Vanilla beans are hard to find. I get mine at the health food store, but that's a sixty-five mile drive. It's nice to see a website selling them.

[sally]

I found some vanilla beans in long glass tubes at Costco in November or December. It might just be a seasonal thing, though.

[fancy1]

We've been making our vanilla extract for years, or I should say "feeding" the extract jar for years.
I did add more beans at the beginning though, and as I use it I just add about the same amount of alcohol back in. Every so often I do remove one of the beans and add a fresh one to the jar. Works very well for us.
The beans I have now were found on e-bay, arrived in great condition, and for a lot less than buying by the single bean here.
And I do use the same process for other extracts too: lemon, orange etc.

[BIGGUY]

Here's an online place that you can get vanilla beans from along with other spices and things. I've never used the beans, but I have used many of their spices, extracts, and the wine and cheese powders. They have great service and products.

http://www.spicesetc.com/product/Madagascar-Vanilla-Beans/Spices-Herbs

[paqcrewmama]

I know several people who do this but we just add the split beans right to the bottle of vodka, set it in a dark area of the pantry for 6 months and then begin enjoying. I'll add more vodka and a fresh beans every once in a while. I suppose at some point I'll drain off the bottle, remove the old, spent beans and add fresh but it will be a bit.

[Aseries]

US Food what ever there called states anything less than I think 13.25 ounces of vanilla beans per 1 gallon of alcohol at 35% is considered flavored alcohol. I followed the USDA did the math and went and bought vanilla beans on ebay. They are cheap by the pound. I used 13.25 ounces and one gallon of vodka and been fermenting the beans for like 3 months now.

OMG does it ever smell good. One note is when your done with the beans dry them out and toss them in sugar, you can use them for vanilla sugar, then when your done with that take them and toss them in a blender add little water or alcohol and make vanilla paste. just grind them up till there is no more bark like consistencty.

I also recommend find some really nice glass jars. I currently am using glass milk bottles that I was going to bring back for deposit. Well I found out the bottles are long enough for the vanilla beans and I can see how everything is coming along...

I just used the US food people as a guideline. But you can do the math and make smaller batches. It also was stated some where i read that 35% alcohol is about the best to use any more than 50% wont extract the vanilla as good. I think 40% was good for me, I couldnt find anything exactly 35% but I dont care its all mine lol...

Good to see others are doing it, anyone wanna share pics of there Vanilla making experience... Next time I'm online I'll upload pics..

[Aamylf]

Got the vodka for free (long story), got the jars in my cupboard, seeing if Sam's has beans this weekend. Not sure I want to buy 100 vanilla beans off ebay unless I get some friends to do this, too! Pretty cheap extract all and all. Thanks for the vanilla sugar/vanilla paste ideas, too.

[Aseries]

Actually I thought about what to do with 100 vanilla beans, and you know what, great place to store them is, well in Vodka. Its like suspended animation the vodka gets great flavor and when you need one just pull it out. Also making Vanilla sugar is easy, plus I learned make extra cause people will always pay more for a little home made anything.

I make things home made, and I get crazy prices for things long as they know I made it, it tastes good, it might help pay for the beans... So in the end everything ends up free and paid for... Just an idea...

I got people who cant wait to buy 4oz bottles of vanilla extract from me. Especially when I did it for an experiment, if I get back enough to cover the ingredients, I'm good...

[leera]

I just got some vodka yesterday that I want to use to make homemade vanilla extract,I read several recipes,and the one said to get the best vodka you can afford.....well I didn't do that,but I did talk to the local liquor expert,who sold me one called Svedka,that he says will work quite well for what I want,and tastes good on it's own as well.

I'm just going to put the beans straight into the bottle....

I hadn't even read this posting until this morning,I am also glad to see that others are trying it too.

[Aamylf]

Put my beans in several weeks ago and looked last night -- nice and brown and smelled pretty yummy, but still a bit vodka-like. I figure in a few weeks it will be vanilla extract. Now I'm sorry I didn't get 100 beans!

[Aseries]

If you slice the beans, down the middle splitting them, you will get better results, also wait a few months. Mine have been on the shelf for 4 months now I think. You think a few weeks it smells good, omg wait 4 months you will want to get drunk off of it lol....

[leera]

Aseries,there is no "like" button here,otherwise I would give it to you on that comment.

A friend of mine said she leaves hers sit for a year before she opens it.I was thinking six months would about do it.