Making vanilla extract at home

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Bob in St. Louis

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Re: Making vanilla extract at home
« Reply #20 on: 16 Jul 2009, 01:24 am »
A "baker's dozen" of beans arrived. I've got some in the Grand Marnier, some in (cheap) white Rum and hopfully soon I'll have some Vodka. Not sure why I'm making three batches.....just "because" I suppose.

See you in two months.   aa  :drool:

Bob

Bob in St. Louis

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Re: Making vanilla extract at home
« Reply #21 on: 3 Jul 2010, 08:24 pm »
Bump:

A couple days short of one year later..........

Rum
The vanilla made with rum is just about gone. Turned out fantastic. Would need to buy more rum to make it again. As the instructions told me, I neglected to "top off" the mixture as it's used to keep it as full(ish) strength. Now I'll be starting over with new rum but using beans that have given their "oomph" the last batch. Might not get much vanilla "zip" next batch.

Vodka
The vanilla made with vodka is still almost full. We only use it a couple times. Not that it's any worse than the rum, just that cabinet space upstairs is scarce, so we had to pick one for 'daily' use. The vodka batch stayed downstairs for 352 days. I'll be bringing about 1/3rd to Bryan's wife (see previous post) in a glass jar with it's own bean so she can top it off as needed.
She is, after all, the one who started me on this.  :wink:

Grand Marnier 
Jesus man.......  :o ........
A year later and I can barely sniff it without having tears in my eyes. This is some wicked stuff. Definitely NOT recommended for vanilla, but might be useful for something unusual to sip on a rare occasion.  :lol:

Makes great pancakes by the way.  :eyebrows:

Bob

p.s. The only reason I'm bumping this is for some weird sentimental reason. In a few minutes I'll be leaving to go to a GAS party and will be meeting Bryans wife and giving her some. It's the first time I've seen her (I think) since she gave me real vanilla.
Think she remembers I promised her some after a year has gone by?  :lol:

Bob in St. Louis

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Re: Making vanilla extract at home
« Reply #22 on: 20 Jun 2016, 12:35 am »



JakeJ

Re: Making vanilla extract at home
« Reply #23 on: 20 Jun 2016, 01:08 am »
Just caught this thread and wanted to comment.  Great idea.  Did you do one in bourbon?  Just curious as the current vanilla extract I have is Trader Joe's "Pure Vanilla Bourbon Extract", which is about the best I've ever had.  Bourbon is a fairly typical medium for vanilla extract.  This has my curiosity piqued.

Bob in St. Louis

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Re: Making vanilla extract at home
« Reply #24 on: 20 Jun 2016, 01:19 am »
Interesting. I have not tried Bourbon.
I did try spiced rum. = This is NOT what you want in your pancakes.  :o :nono:  :lol: This was a waste. Not recommended.
I tried Grand Marnier. = This is something you could sip all night. Very tasty. But NOT what you want in your pancakes.  :duh:

I've been playing it safe, and am only using vodka. I've got a recipe for whiskey cake that I've sampled and is extremely tasty. Would be neat if there was "whiskey vanilla" in there too.
Hmm... Thoughts... interesting...   :eyebrows: