Make Your Own Vanilla

I discovered about a couple of years ago that the most popular brand of vanilla, McCormick's Pure Vanilla Extract contains corn syrup. The ingredients listed are vanilla bean extractives in water, alcohol (35%), and corn syrup.

I was actually surprised to find that pure vanilla extract contained water and corn syrup.

I am on a mailing list for the cookbook Nourishing Traditions, and last year they were talking about making one's own vanilla.

So last year, on January 20th to be exact, I started my first bottle of vanilla. We are just getting down to the last few ounces and I started a new bottle yesterday.

Here's how I do it.

Buy a bottle of vodka. I buy the cheapest one I can find. I found a 750ml bottle on sale for $5.99. 750ml converts to 3 cups. I ordered my vanilla beans from eBay. I still have a bunch left from last year. I'm trying to find my order so I can see how much they cost so I can figure out how much it costs to make 3 cups of vanilla. I'm thinking $10 and I used about 1/6th to make vanilla last year.
The bottle on the right is last year's bottle, the bottle on the left is my new bottle. It takes about one month to turn into vanilla.

Now I'm going outside to help build the new maternity ward.

Until next time.