1 bottle of vodka 1 vanilla bean pod put vanilla bean pod into the vodka. Recap bottle, let sit for 2 months before using, leaving vanilla bean pod in vodka after opening for first use.
You can also divide the vodka into smaller bottles each with it's own vanilla bean, and give them as gifts. Keep replenishing the Vodka after a few uses and you have a perpetual jar of vanilla for flavoring, making the house smell great or dabbing behind your ears for cologne.
thanks ck and toni! i made it for the first time last year and keep a bottle going. works great and much cheaper than store bought!
Funny you mention this. About 4 years ago or so I used a mason jar, a couple of cups of vodka, and a few vanilla beans split and they have been in the pantry ever since. I check then every once in a while. They didn't turn me on like a good bottle of the real thing. It still looks like vodka or water and I can't taste anything. I could probably could sit on the pantry floor with the door closed and have my own very good time all evening but it sure doesn't taste like I would think it should.
Wow, Barb, I think you need a few more beans. Really, I don't know. My neighbor does this and just gave me the "recipe". Maybe your beans (did you use the pod she said to use the whole thing) weren't fresh? I don't really have any clue. Put in more or just use it and see if you notice the flavor in your cooking. Mart, do you have a bulk food store? Awww, forget it, You live close enough to Mexico that you can get the red rooster brand and it's very reasonable there(in Texas). I brought back 6 fifths that time we were in Texas and it is now almost all gone. Anyway, I got my pod/bean thing in a bulk food store. Granulated sugar stored with a bean pod is a treat, too.
Mart, PM me your address and I can send you some Vanilla beans. I can get them at just about any grocery store or at World Market. You have to be careful about buying mexican vanilla, sometimes it's made with Tonka beans instead of Vanilla beans. Tonka beans contain coumarin which is generally banned in this country, so make sure the label says made with vanilla beans. Do you have a website for the one you have? Red Rooster is not a label I have seen in the mexican markets around here, I did a google and the only site I found is from New Jersey. Their website makes a referrence to Mexican Vanilla made with Madagascar Vanilla beans and Bourbon...that sounds pretty good.
carolyn keiper, I can't remember if I left the whole bean in it. Probably not. I will check later. It's almost 6 am and almost coffee time. Right now that's more important. nothing before that... I too have vanilla directly from Mexico. I was told to make sure it was true vanilla but back then I wasn't sure what they meant. The worry was that "rat poison" may have been added to it. Now I understand that many of the legume seeds like Tonka have something in it to wort off rodents and things that would eat them. I will add more beans later today and let you know if it gets better. I was really disappointed in it. My hubby always thought I was very silly for trying to make my own vanilla. If adding it to my old stuff works, I don't think I will tell him that I did that. Then I will have to let him think it takes years to make it. Sometimes we play jokes on each other...he will go to work bragging about his wifey took sooo loong to make something so special.....All the guys at work know that I did something to fake him out.
Toni I would appreciate that and will send the money to pay for them. We have Wal-Mart and thats about as exotic as it gets here. We just don`t have any of the big stores within driving distance. I am no where remotely close to Mexico and wouldn`t want to venture into that country anyway. Texas is a big state and some from smaller states just don`t get the vastness we have here !! Especially the NE people. You can drive a few hours and be out of state,, we can drive a few hours and not even be out of the county. LOL
Toni, You are correct, it is not the red rooster brand...we just all called it that. I had to go look at the label. The top of the bottle was sealed with a paper tamper proof label that has a red rooster on it. That was the only one we were to purchase. It is actually called "La Vencedora" vainilla pura....it has a spanish label and the ingredients are :vanilla bean extract in purified wather, vanillin u.s.p., alcohol 8%, corn syrup,natural dark color. Sorry for any misinformation there. That certainly wasn't my intent to mislead anyone. Mart we did not go into Mexico to buy it. We bought it in Texas, but were down in Zapata. I have no idea where we were when we purchased it. My MIL was there and showed us where to go. I just don't remember where we went though, sorry. Check at walmart in the mexican food section, though. I did see it there one time...even up here in Ohio. I was lamenting that I needed more and then my neighbor gave me this recipe and I need to go to the liqueur? store, now. Wow, I have never been there myself. I wonder if the grocery store carries it. Silly me. I have no clue.
Don't expect your homemade vanilla extract to taste like the vanilla flavoring you bought. Pure extract has a stronger taste and is not sweetened like the vanilla flavoring is. When you buy your Vodka, which a grocery store will not carry unless they have a liquor license, get as high a proof as possible. Nothing less than 80 Proof....Everclear which is 180 Proof and will work best but you don't want to taste it if you are a tea-totalter . Don't worry about the alcohol content making your tipsy....,unless you decide to drink the whole bottle....1 or 2 teaspoons in a recipe is not going to be noticeble, the alcohol will cook out leaving just the flavor of the Vanilla.
A very long time Go my sisters mother in law brought back 2very large bottles of pure vanilla extract from Mexico. The first bottle was incredible. So good. The second bottle was awful. It had a cinnamon taste to it and not a kind cinnamon taste. An aftertaste. We ended up throwing it away. I'd be willing to try making my own . I go through so much of it.
I joke about living in the "back of nowhere" but I can get the good Mexican vanilla extract at our local grocery. When we lived in town (larger than the one close to us now) I couldn't get it at the grocery, and would load up on the vanilla extract when we went to Mexico. Good thing I can buy it locally! Like Mart, you couldn't lure me across the border now.
Carolyn, You can use bourbon also.I just made vanilla extract to put in gift baskets for Christmas. I bought the sample bottles of vodka and bourbon washed off labels and just added the beans and my own labels. I made these last week and they already smell like vanilla.
Mmmm. Smelling vanilla is like smelling Gardenia flowers. It makes me salivate and want to eat it. Don't know why that happens to me.
