After 7 months of steeping. I bottled 40.8 oz. of my homemade vanilla extract for our use and for Christmas gifts. This was made using the least expensive vodka I could find (less than $8 per 750 ml) and 11 Madagascar vanilla beans in each bottle.
After dinner tonight we went to the store and bough a cheap bottle of Bourbon, and took all the vanilla beans from the two bottles, combined them into one and filled the bottle with the bourbon. That will now steep for at least 6 months to create a different flavored vanilla extract. The beans will continue to leach flavor for a few extract cycles before exhausting the flavor.
I also bought two medium lemons (you can use one large lemon), a large navel orange and another bottle of cheap vodka to make lemon extract and orange extract. For this you only use the skin of the fruit, making sure you do not include any of the white "pith" from the skin which is bitter in taste. The surface skin hold the oils where the flavor resides. Here is the skin peeled using a potato peeler, chopped finely then saturated with 5 oz. of 40% alcohol vodka in a sealed jar. Shake every day or so and you'll have your extract in 3-4 weeks.
I'll report back in January to let you know how these turned out.
After dinner tonight we went to the store and bough a cheap bottle of Bourbon, and took all the vanilla beans from the two bottles, combined them into one and filled the bottle with the bourbon. That will now steep for at least 6 months to create a different flavored vanilla extract. The beans will continue to leach flavor for a few extract cycles before exhausting the flavor.
I also bought two medium lemons (you can use one large lemon), a large navel orange and another bottle of cheap vodka to make lemon extract and orange extract. For this you only use the skin of the fruit, making sure you do not include any of the white "pith" from the skin which is bitter in taste. The surface skin hold the oils where the flavor resides. Here is the skin peeled using a potato peeler, chopped finely then saturated with 5 oz. of 40% alcohol vodka in a sealed jar. Shake every day or so and you'll have your extract in 3-4 weeks.
I'll report back in January to let you know how these turned out.