"Extracts"

JoeV

Dough Boy
Site Supporter
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.

P1020785.jpg


P1020963.jpg


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.

P1020967.jpg


P1020968.jpg


P1020969.jpg





I'll report back in January to let you know how these turned out.
 

Guts

New member
After 7 months of steeping. I bottled 40.8 oz. of my homemade vanilla extract for our use and for Christmas gifts.

Joe My address is .... ..... .. El Cajon, ca.

I will be watching this post to see how the others come out. Good job Joe.
 

MexicoKaren

Joyfully Retired
Super Site Supporter
Lovely gift idea, Joe. I use lots of vanilla. Fortunately, I have very god vanilla available to me here at a reasonable price, but the beans are also pretty inexpensive, so it would be interesting to make some of my own and compare. Thanks for the ideas.
 

BamsBBQ

Ni pedo
Site Supporter
very good idea..funny you should post this, i posted a extract idea in the holiday contest..glad to see someone else does it as well:thumb:
 
K

Kimchee

Guest
I had a friend who decided to make some peach vodka this way.
He thought a little vanilla undertone would be good......
so he dropped an entire bean into the bottle.

It was tasty vanilla vodka with a hint of peach!

And so he learned the potency of the bean!
 

SilverSage

Resident Crone
What timing, Joe. I just poured mine off, too. I found some pretty little 4 ounce bottles on a clearance rack at Ross. Most of these are also going in gift baskets.

I've never tried fruit extracts; can't wait to see the results. I think I want to try coconut extract next.
 

Attachments

  • 055.jpg
    055.jpg
    58.7 KB · Views: 154

JoeV

Dough Boy
Site Supporter
What timing, Joe. I just poured mine off, too. I found some pretty little 4 ounce bottles on a clearance rack at Ross. Most of these are also going in gift baskets.

I've never tried fruit extracts; can't wait to see the results. I think I want to try coconut extract next.
This is my first shot at the fruit extracts. It's cheap enough that I'm not out much if it doesn't work.

What alcohol did you use for your vanilla extract? Yours is much darker than mine, although mine is very aromatic. I'm making a batch now using bourbon which I'm sure will be darker than my vodka batch.
 

SilverSage

Resident Crone
I used 100 proof vodka. The eGullet folks who ran all those side-by-side experiments a few years ago were all saying it provided a better extraction than the 80 proof. I also split and cut up the beans to expose more surface area. I have no idea how many I used - I didn't record it - but it was a bunch. AND...it's been brewing for nearly a year.

I think all of those things added up to how dark it is.

I suspect your version with the bourbon will have a great flavor.
 

Mr. Green Jeans

New member
Joe, you got me going on this about a year ago. It is the bestest vanilla going. Right now I have lemons peeled and steeping in 100 proof vodka for limoncello which will be gifted.
 

JoeV

Dough Boy
Site Supporter
Great idea for gift giving, Joe. Looks great! Have you ever made Lemoncello? That's one on my to-do list. Thanks for sharing.
I have not made limoncello, but a friend of ours did, and gave us some in exchange for teaching her how to make the vanilla extract. I can only take very small doses of this stuff, because it borders on sickening sweet, if you know what I mean.

P1020965.jpg
 
Top