Why make vanilla extract?
Quality vanilla is a tasty and essential cooking ingredient. It’s also very expensive. By making our own extraction we get the highest possible quality product made from the absolute best vanilla beans. Considering that the FDA regulates vanilla extract by bean weight and not bean quality, you never know what you might be getting with manufactured products. Your vanilla will be free of the artificial colors and vile corn sweeteners found in even high-quality vanilla extracts. Hand crafted vanilla extract is a great gift that will last a lifetime — like a fine wine, vanilla extract matures with age.
Materials
Gather these supplies to make your extract:
Vanilla Beans (1 oz per cup alcohol/30 grams per 250 ml alcohol)
Get the best beans you can, but don’t get ripped off by outrageous prices — check out the reviews. Grade ‘B’ vanilla beans (also called “extract grade”) will give the most vanilla flavor per kilo of beans.
We could go with the FDA requirement and use about 0.8 oz beans per cup of extract, but this probably wouldn’t be strong enough. Industrial vanilla extractors are orders of magnitude more efficient than our hand extraction process. We need to add more beans to get anywhere near extract concentration. I recommend a minimum of 1 oz (~8 beans) per cup, but shoot for more. Remember: professional bakers use 2-fold extracts, it can’t be too strong.
The beans shown in this recipe are Amadeus Trading’s Uganda Gold ™ Vanilla beans. These beans were the obvious choice because their large size made for great pictures.
Dark Glass bottle with tight fitting cap.
Green or brown wine bottles work best. Dark glass protects the extract from direct sun exposure. Make sure you have a tight-fitting cork or lid that can be easily removed (you cannot resist smelling it during the extraction!).
Vodka (37.5-40% alcohol, 75-80 proof)
Consider a decent quality vodka, as you could have this extract for 10 years or more. A super high proof (more alcohol) vodka won’t extract as much vanilla goodness [reference]. Commercial vanilla extracts are 35% alcohol, by law. Leave some room in your calculations for the water that the beans will contribute.
Sharp knife and cutting board
To slice the beans in half and remove the seeds.
Steamer or pot of boiling water
Though optional, I always sterilize any implements that will come into contact with the bean or extract. Any yuck will sit in the bottle and contribute off-flavors for years. Why risk it? Steam or boil a clean bottle, cap, and knife for 30 minutes just prior to use.
Clean work area
Its probably not a huge concern, but you don’t want strong odors floating around when you prepare extract. Unless you intend for your vanilla to have smoked salmon undertones.
Patience
Some, but not a lot. Our vanilla can be used after 4 weeks, even though the extraction will continue for 6 months. When the extraction is finished the vanilla will continue to mature indefinitely. It’s like having a fine wine that can be sampled continuously as it ages over decades.
Step 1: Cut Beans
Step 1 - Cut the Beans
Cut your vanilla beans lengthwise.
Leave one end attached if you like (because it looks nice), but I find that it’s easier to clean the beans, get them in the bottle, and make them sit in the bottle properly when they are split completely.
Step 2: Scrape Beans
Step 2 - Scrape the Caviar
Lay your cut bean flat, exposed side up. With your knife titled at a 45 degree angle, run the knife along the bean so that it scrapes up all the goo from the inside (also called caviar).
A dull knife, like a butter knife, ensures that you can harvest the caviar without further shredding the skin of the bean. Every so often, clean the blade with your fingers and make a caviar pile on your cutting surface.
Step 3: Chop the Skins
Step 3 - Chop the Skins
Cut the bean skins into smaller pieces. Smaller pieces have more surface area which might yield a stronger extract. Whole and half beans tend to pile up above the vodka after shaking, smaller pieces don’t do this.
Step 4: Fill Bottle With Beans
Step 4 - Fill Bottle with Vanilla Skins and Caviar
Stuff the cleaned bean skins and the caviar into your bottle.
Step 5: Fill with Vodka
Step 5 - Add Alcohol
Fill the bottle with vodka or your choice of alcohol (see Step 1).
Step 6: Shake…
Step 6 - Shake
Week 1 - Shake the bottle vigorously every day for at least the first week. Seed and cottony fibrous chunks will swirl in the bottle, this is normal. By the second or third day the extract should be a bit darker. Open it up and smell, yum that’s good! Contemplate wearing the extract as your signature scent.
Week 2,3, and 4 - Shake the bottle a few times a week.
Week 5 - Congratulations, you have a very raw vanilla extract! If you want vanilla seeds in your recipe give the bottle a shake before pouring. Use some. Yum! Use some more. Top up the bottle with alcohol if you expose any vanilla beans.
Month 2 - Month 6 - Sick of vanilla now? Me too. It was a fun ride though, huh? Give it a shake when you can be bothered.
Step 7: Filter
Step 7 - Filter
After 6 months it’s time to clean up the extract.
Why clean up the extract? It’s probably a personal decision. I’d love to hear what others do. I reason that:
- vanilla beans are fresh for about 12 months - after 6 months in my possession they are likely at least 12 months old. I don’t want stale beans to befoul my extract.
- extraction has pretty much happened at 6 months.
- eventually the pods have to be removed or they’ll dry out as you use the extract and the beans become exposed.
- you can add fresh beans for an even more concentrated extraction, which is good.
Don’t worry, you can dry out the extracted vanilla beans and use them to make vanilla sugar.
You will need:
- A clean (sterilized) bottle and cap.
- A clean funnel.
- A coffee filter - or - a clean strainer.
Put the funnel in the clean bottle. Put the filter or strainer in the funnel. If you want vanilla seeds in your final extract use a strainer, otherwise go for the coffee filter. Pour the extract into the funnel and filter it into the clean bottle. Cap tightly.
I didn’t have an extra bottle handy, so in the picture below I’m filtering into a clean measuring cup.
Step 8: Mature
Step 8 - Mature
Like a fine wine, vanilla will mature and ‘improve’ indefinitely… or so they say. This is a good thing, because a liter of vanilla extract will last an average person decades. With a 1/4 pound of vanilla beans and some vodka you can make a holiday, birthday, or wedding gift that will still delight in 10, 20 or 30 years!
29 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://www.vanillareview.com/make-vanilla-extract/trackback/
August 1, 2008 at 11:19 pm
VBL007
Ian, thank you so VERY much for sharing your enthusiasm about vanilla beans and vanilla extract with all of us. Your very first DIY (do-it-yourself) site gave me the push I needed to start making my own vanilla extract. I appreciated your very specific recipe on the ratio of beans to alcohol and why you used that ratio. All of the other “recipes” I read online were too vague on the ratio of beans to alcohol.
I started making vanilla extract for the first time in February 2008 and I’ve now made oodles of bottles for my friends and myself. I’ve made extract using your recipe from the planifolia and tahitensis beans and only vodka; the taste is clean and pure.
August 3, 2008 at 5:33 am
Samuel West
Thank you for this excellent guide!
August 4, 2008 at 2:02 am
mb
vanilla beans
is it really necessary to take out the beans from the vodka. i never heard of beans “going stale”.
mb
August 4, 2008 at 2:02 am
Ian
re:vanilla beans
I’m not really certain. Whole vanilla beans go ’stale’ after about a year of storage — the quality and potency reduces over time. The exception is vacuum packed beans, which supposedly keep for several years.
You can probably leave the beans in the extract/alcohol forever. The beans get really dry and have given up all their flavor after a few months. There’s really no reason to keep them in the extract longer — except personal preference.
I would worry about mold once you’ve used a good portion of your extract and the skins are exposed above the level of the liquid.
August 4, 2008 at 2:03 am
kate
bean caviar
Why do you take the caviar out? I’ve seen recipes that say to chop up the entire bean.
Love your site!
August 4, 2008 at 2:03 am
Ian
re:bean caviar
Thanks Kate,
In general, I do anything I can to increase the surface area contact of the macerated bean and alcohol. If you leave the caviar in, it will eventually dislodge on its own — but why not help it along?
August 4, 2008 at 2:03 am
mithras
Bean Caviar Experiment
Scraping the caviar from the bean adds a siginificant amount of extra time and clean-up to the process. I am conducting an experiment to determine if separating the caviar from the bean results in significant improvement in vanilla extraction.
For my experiment, I used two extraction methods - one with caviar left inside the bean and one with caviar and bean separated. All beans were cut in half when placed inside the bottle. I did this for two different vanilla bean varieties, Planifolia and Tahitensis. I have four total 750ml bottles.
It will be six months until I know for sure, but I have some initial findings. The separated bean group’s bottles are significantly darker on the first day of the extraction. Also, the first day shows that shaking often leads to a darker color mixture (in all cases).
Great web page - certainly inspiring!!!
August 4, 2008 at 2:04 am
Ian
What a great experiment. I
What a great experiment. I always scrape the beans because I take pictures for site.
Did you split the beans with the caviar intact? I imagine that if you split the beans, but don’t scrape the inside, the caviar will probably separate during agitation.
Please keep us updated with your results. The outcome will be really interesting.
August 4, 2008 at 2:04 am
christine
Food processor?
Although not so pretty as the sliced beans (and i’m just supposing, i haven’t tried this either way). Why not do a rough chop on the beans, then put them in the food processor… add in the vodka bit by bit, and when you’ve got a pretty smashed up slurry, funnel it into the bottle. Then probably top off with more vodka (my food processor is quite tiny).
Great site!
August 4, 2008 at 2:04 am
Ian
That sounds like a great
That sounds like a great idea. It’s probably really close to what is actually done at an extract manufacturer — they macerate the beans into tiny pieces.
My only word of caution comes from a paper written by Garth at Heilala Vanilla: Extract manufacturers are careful not to grind the beans too small or the final extract will be cloudy.
Thanks for the great suggestion.
August 4, 2008 at 2:05 am
Bruce Pyeatt
What about ageing in an oak cask?
August 4, 2008 at 2:05 am
Ian
What a fantastic idea! It would pick up extra vanilla flavors from the oak. A variation would be casks used previously for wine or whiskey.
Do you know a source of small casks? I’d love to try this.
August 4, 2008 at 2:05 am
Bruce Pyeatt
thebarrelsource.com has new barrels as small as 1 lt.
The used barrels I found were too big.
August 4, 2008 at 2:06 am
Ian
I like this one: 1 liter, black steel hoops, $29 (+$12 for father’s day personalization…).
August 4, 2008 at 2:06 am
Bruce Pyeatt
If you look around their site, they have 2 for specials.
August 4, 2008 at 2:06 am
Gale
Homemade is best. I’ve started using Ian’s recipe of 1 oz. vanilla beans per 8 ounces of alcohol (or 30 grams of beans per 250 ml of alcohol) as the MINIMUM amout of beans. Most of the other Internet recipes for extract use substantially less beans, which is why the extract can be disappointing (Ian calls this vanilla vodka, not extract). I cannot over-emphasize Ian’s proportions of beans to alcohol.
My husband and I did some taste testing with equal amounts of extract and some sugar in a glass of milk to compare my homemade Madagascar vanilla planifolia extract made with vodka to my Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon extract and the Kirland (Costco brand)Madagascar vanilla extract. All of the test extracts were made from the same plant and all from Madagascar. One of the extracts was silky smooth with no harsh aftertaste. My husband assumed that smoothest extract was the Nielsen-Massey extract but he was wrong. The SILKY SMOOTH VANILLA EXTRACT WAS MY HOMEMADE EXTRACT, which contained only vanilla beans and vodka and had been marinated for 2 months. I will NEVER buy another bottle of commercial extract.
August 4, 2008 at 2:07 am
Greg
Where do you get your bottle stoppers shown in step 8? They look really slick… I used corks for my first batch, so I have about 8 weeks to find something i can reuse to seal the bottles.
August 4, 2008 at 2:07 am
Ian
I found the resealable stoppers at a local discount store, I think they were around 90 cents. I don’t like them too much because the rubber seems to dry out from the alcohol and eventually smells a bit funky.
I now use beer bottles to store the extract, and cap them with an actual beer cap using a capper. Eventually, I plan to order a range of small plastic bottles for each variety of extract — but I’ve yet to find the perfect bottle.
August 4, 2008 at 2:07 am
Edge
I received my 2 lbs of vanilla beans from US Vanilla Company (1 lb of Madagascar Grade A and 1 lb of Tahitian Grade B) and started making extract with some vodka I bought today.
Since it was kind of late when we got home from buying bottles at The Container Store, I only made two 250 ml bottle’s worth, but already, I can’t wait to make more tomorrow! (My fingers smell DELICIOUS right now!) I followed your directions and split the beans, took out the caviar, cut up the beans into smaller pieces, and then put all the beans and caviar into the bottle, filling it with vodka and then sealing it up with a bottle cap or cork. I shook vigorously and put the bottles (one green, one clear) into a cool, dark place. I will fill more bottles tomorrow, and will continue to shake them up over the next few weeks.
I am making a minimum of 15 bottles at 250 ml each for gifts at Christmas. I may make more depending on how much vanilla bean I have.
It was really quite fun, as I have been looking forward to doing this for months. I can’t wait to do more tomorrow, and I look forward to the day when we can start using my own extract in our cooking here at home. My wife is excited at the prospect of having such high quality vanilla extract, and my daughter is looking forward to using some as perfume.
Thanks for such a great site, a great instructable, and for all the information you’ve gathered on the subject of vanilla beans and vanilla extract!
August 4, 2008 at 2:07 am
Sarah
So excited!
This is just making me grin, I’m so excited to get started. So many great tips on here! I just ordered my beans yesterday, and I’m really looking forward to getting started. I think I’m going to do a batch with vodka and a batch with bourbon, see how it goes. I bough Madagascar and Tahitian beans, and I’m just obsessing over making vanilla right now. I wanna cook with it AND make it my signature scent. ;) I love vanilla!
August 4, 2008 at 2:08 am
VBL007
Just remember that when you see Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract in the stores, the word “bourbon” stands for the Bourbon Islands and NOT for bourbon alcohol. I would not suggest using the Tahitian vanilla beans in bourbon as you may lose the subtle fruitiness of the Tahitian bean in such a strong tasting alcohol. You might want to read the results of the Coco&Me vanilla extract experiment posted in the “Frequent Questions” folder and also in the “In the news” folder.
Good luck; I hope you have as much fun with your vanilla beans as I’m having with my various experiments and bottles of extract.
August 4, 2008 at 2:10 am
Ian
Comments dated August 4 were copied from the old site. Comment dates didn’t transfer correctly, so everything is reset to the insert time.
You may also like to discuss this page in the vanilla forum.
August 17, 2008 at 2:57 pm
rachele
Great recipe, just got my order of beans in and can’t wait to try it!!
If anyone is looking for bottles, I came across this wholesaler:
http://www.sks-bottle.com As I was looking for small bottles to package my vanilla for gifts and I found it cheaper and more variety than other stores/sites.
August 20, 2008 at 3:06 am
Elayne
Moltes gracies as they say here in Catalunya! I want to thank you for the detailed info. I have made vanilla before, but your notes will help me try and create something worthwhile during our year here in Barcelona. I have been searching everywhere for some vanilla, but since baking is not something people like to do much in this marvelous city, I must make my own. (It is understandable since there is a bread and/or pastry shop on every block.) Unfortunately the beans that I have found are a little sad looking, but vacuum packed, so I will start this today and who knows…However, I have saved this information and when we return to our little casa in western Mass next August, I can finally make vanilla correctly. Again, I thank you.
August 24, 2008 at 12:11 pm
George
re: Aging in oak casks:
I have my a batch of vanilla put away for Christmas, 1.5 litre with vodka and 500ml with a good Italian brandy. I cook with brandy so this is an experiment.
Whiskey distillers often refer to the ‘angels portion’ when the alcohol volume reduces through evaporation over an extended period of time. I hope to put down a small cask of vanilla made from straight alcohol in the fall. Maturation and evaporation should produce a nectar worthy of high praise. I will let you know in 5 years or so what it tastes like.
August 24, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Michelle
Hi…I am picking up my beans from the Post Office tomorrow …I have purchased 20 PREMIUM MADAGASCAR Vanilla Beans GRADE A ~7.5″ and plan on adding them to a 26 oz bottle and topping up with vodka..via your method above…
I am interested in making the vanilla sugar …can this still be done even though the strained beans will no longer be whole and have been stripped of the caviar ?
(I actually plan on making vanilla stevia not sugar as I don’t eat refined sugar.)
Thanks Michelle.
August 24, 2008 at 12:50 pm
ian
Michelle,
That should work fine. That’s how I make vanilla sugar.
I don’t know how it will work with powdered stevia — I imagine it depends on the binders, if any, that are used to dilute the extreme sweetness (and sometimes bitterness) of concentrated stevia powder.
August 24, 2008 at 1:18 pm
ian
George,
Thanks for the info.
I got a bit of oak cask/barrel info from barrelsource.com, but this is the first real-life experiment. Good luck, and keep us updated.
August 25, 2008 at 10:16 am
Michelle
Thanks I will give it a try and let you know how it turns out ( in about 6 months :-)…I only use premium stevia powder…I will try it with the spoonable version which just has high Reb A concentrate and inulin…for any one thats interested you can get it at this site which is the best I have found anywhere…
http://www.herb-care.com