5.29.2004
I love Saturday mornings
Only on Saturday mornings do I get to drink coffee and listen to Car Talk. What a great day.
I started the process last night of making vanilla extract, and I decided some of you guys might be interested in knowing how! My grandmother in Winston-Salem learned this from the caterer that my uncle worked with, and she's been making her own ever since. All you need is vodka, vanilla beans, and time.
Get a fifth of vodka. Incidentally, a fifth is .75 liters... can anyone tell me what it's supposed to a fifth of?? I had to ask the guy at the liquor store what size a fifth was, and I felt ridiculous. I don't suppose it matters what brand of vodka you get. I bought the cheap grocery store's brand at $5 a bottle. =) You'll also need about eight vanilla beans, which are best found at natural foods stores. Regular grocery stores sell them too, but at a very inflated price. Most of the natural foods stores sell them by the pound, and since they're light, it's somewhere between $3 and $5 for eight. It depends on their size, of course. Once you get home, split them open lengthwise to release all the fun vanilla stuff and cram all that down in the vodka bottle. You may want to pour out a little bit of the vodka first... I almost spilled it because my vanilla beans were displacing a lot of liquid. Put the cap back on the bottle, leave it for two months, and you'll have vanilla extract. If you want to use some at that point and then leave the rest in the bottle, Granny says it will only get better. =) She actually got a bunch of little pharmacy bottles and distributed the first batch she made. I suppose you'd have to do a lot of baking to use the whole bottle yourself in a reasonable amount of time!
I started the process last night of making vanilla extract, and I decided some of you guys might be interested in knowing how! My grandmother in Winston-Salem learned this from the caterer that my uncle worked with, and she's been making her own ever since. All you need is vodka, vanilla beans, and time.
Get a fifth of vodka. Incidentally, a fifth is .75 liters... can anyone tell me what it's supposed to a fifth of?? I had to ask the guy at the liquor store what size a fifth was, and I felt ridiculous. I don't suppose it matters what brand of vodka you get. I bought the cheap grocery store's brand at $5 a bottle. =) You'll also need about eight vanilla beans, which are best found at natural foods stores. Regular grocery stores sell them too, but at a very inflated price. Most of the natural foods stores sell them by the pound, and since they're light, it's somewhere between $3 and $5 for eight. It depends on their size, of course. Once you get home, split them open lengthwise to release all the fun vanilla stuff and cram all that down in the vodka bottle. You may want to pour out a little bit of the vodka first... I almost spilled it because my vanilla beans were displacing a lot of liquid. Put the cap back on the bottle, leave it for two months, and you'll have vanilla extract. If you want to use some at that point and then leave the rest in the bottle, Granny says it will only get better. =) She actually got a bunch of little pharmacy bottles and distributed the first batch she made. I suppose you'd have to do a lot of baking to use the whole bottle yourself in a reasonable amount of time!
Labels: coffee, kitchen adventures
- posted by erica 5/29/2004 11:43:00 AM
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Comments:
Okay, so I'm a total baking nerd. I can't wait to try your vanilla extract recipe! If you like cooking with a bit of humor, and a little science and history on the side, you should watch Good Eats on Food TV. It's a great show! This might be improper comment behavior, but I'm going to comment on another post at once! Watch out for any small wires around the computer area. When Carly was a kitten she had a chewing fetish! Now I have no sound coming out of my speakers since she completely severed the connection!
A "fifth" is 1/5 of a gallon. (Apparently, it's been adjusted slightly, in the interest of metric measurements, but it's still very close.)
--Mom (Detail Debbie)
--Mom (Detail Debbie)
# posted by 
: Sun May 30, 04:52:00 PM EDT
: Sun May 30, 04:52:00 PM EDT
Yes, Celia has had some issues with trying to chew wires. We usually use a spray bottle to deter her, but when the wires are plugged in, it becomes a little more precarious.
Anonymous, thanks for cluing us all in about fifths. I wonder who decided to mix metric and standard measurements to come up with this confusing hybrid?
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Anonymous, thanks for cluing us all in about fifths. I wonder who decided to mix metric and standard measurements to come up with this confusing hybrid?
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