vanilla extract

[David Chang]

might as well take these as far as i can since vanilla is so expensive..

 

spent vanilla pods

vodka (80 proof). rum is also ok but vodka has a neutral profile.

foodsafe airtight container

 

combine in a bottle and wait a few months. i read you can speed it up in a pressure cooker, but whats the rush..

Edited June 7, 2022 by David Chang

[Franck]

On 6/7/2022 at 10:44 AM, David Chang said:

might as well take these as far as i can since vanilla is so expensive..

 

spent vanilla pods

vodka (80 proof). rum is also ok but vodka has a neutral profile.

foodsafe airtight container

 

combine in a bottle and wait a few months. i read you can speed it up in a pressure cooker, but whats the rush..

If you ever wish to visit Madagascar, my relatives are telling me the price of vanilla dropped significantly over the past year. I always ask them to bring me some (they used to cultivate them) whenever they come visit in Canada. 

 

Alternatively, to speed up the process, if you could try with the ANOVA vacuum chamber once you receive it and let us know of the results, that would be great!  

[David Chang]

@francki think the anova will produce an infusion, and if extract, it needs to be in sous vide or a pressure cooker. but will give it a go and see...

[DennisLinkletter]

They also grow it here in Bali.. I sent my mother and sister a big fistful for Christmas.

[David Chang]

4 hours ago, DennisLinkletter said:

They also grow it here in Bali.. I sent my mother and sister a big fistful for Christmas.

i will ask my helpers to look for some next time they take go back to Bandung.

[Syzygies]

On 6/7/2022 at 7:44 AM, David Chang said:

might as well take these as far as i can since vanilla is so expensive..

Ahh, obsession.

I heartily believe in making everything once, as tribute, and I've made vanilla extract.

@tekobo and I make our own masa for tortillas, because it's better than we can buy. I grind my own flour for sourdough bread, because I like my bread better than what I can buy.

I'm obsessed with tomatoes; I spent weeks in design experiments building this tomato dehydrator to make partially dried freezer packets of garden tomatoes 60 lbs at a time, and Sicilian estrattu from Santa Cruz dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes, in my opinion better than the tomatoes they use in Sicily.

After my favorite hot sauce source in Louisiana retired, I learned to ferment hot sauce.

I don't make beer, though arguably the best beer I've tasted was made in a neighbor's garage. I'm friends with one of the owners of MoreBeer, and there are people in our neighborhood who've spent more on their brewing rigs than I've spent on cars.

I don't make wine. I know my limits, and I like good wine. I romanticize the #@$# out of making one's own wine, but not enough to drink it. When I lived in Nice once, there was a place that filled and refilled liter wine bottles. I believed I was in the French version of heaven, till I tasted their wine.

I've been gifted batches of homemade wine that makes excellent vinegar in these vinegar barrels.

Vanilla extract? I'd love to be wrong here, and I wish you all the success possible. The best commercial sources are using methods not available to us. I categorize this with wine.

I've read about experiments using an Ultrasonic Homogenizer. There's this famous chef who uses it to clean his brass pasta dies.  It's out of our price range, but if we had one we'd probably use it for everything. I bet it would make great vanilla extract.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Syzygies

[David Chang]

@Syzygies you're making me guilty for putting my excalibur dehydrator up for sale..

i read that it helps to cut the home made extract with quality store bought extract to help get it going..