Vanilla Extract, Homemade

Two ingredients and patience. Real vanilla extract costs a fortune in the store and takes ten minutes to start at home, and the homemade version is better than almost anything you can buy. Buy the beans online by weight, use 70-proof vodka, keep the ratio, and wait longer than you want to.

Ingredients

• 1 oz (28 g) vanilla beans — Grade A Madagascar is the workhorse; buy them online by weight, NOT the two-bean tube at the grocery store
• 8 oz (1 cup / 237 ml) 70-proof (35% ABV) vodka — not a higher proof, see the notes
• A jar with a tight lid — a pint mason jar, or just the bottle the vodka came in

Directions

Key ingredients

Vanilla Extract

1. Get the ratio right, because it is the whole recipe: 1 oz of beans to 8 oz of alcohol. Scale it however you like — 2 oz of beans to 16 oz of vodka, and so on — but keep 1:8.
2. Use 70-proof (35% ABV) vodka. Do not reach for a higher-proof spirit thinking it will extract better. 35% ABV leaves enough water in the mix to do the extracting — some of vanilla’s compounds are water-soluble, and an overproof spirit pulls a narrower, harsher extract.
3. Split each bean lengthwise with a paring knife, from end to end, so the seeds and the inside of the pod are open to the alcohol. Don’t bother scraping the seeds out — they’re going in the jar either way.
4. Put the split beans in the jar. If they’re too long, cut them in half; they only need to fit.
5. Pour the vodka over the beans. Any vessel works — a mason jar, a swing-top, or the vodka’s own bottle. It genuinely does not matter.
6. Make sure the beans are FULLY submerged. A bean poking up above the alcohol is a bean that can mould. If they float, top up with a little more vodka (and add beans to match if you add much) or weight them down.
7. Cap it, label it with the date, and put it somewhere cool and dark. A cupboard is fine.
8. Shake it whenever you think of it — every few days at first, then whenever you notice it. This is not critical, it just helps.
9. Wait at least 10 weeks. That is the minimum, not the target. It’ll be usable, but it won’t be good yet.
10. Longer is better. Three months to a year is where it comes into its own, and it keeps improving well past that. If you can leave it alone for a year, leave it alone for a year.
11. Use it straight from the jar, beans and all. As it goes down, top it up with more vodka and add a bean now and then — or better, set up a Mother jar and never think about it again (see the notes).

Notes

Why 70-proof: 35% ABV is the FDA’s minimum for pure vanilla extract, and it’s the right number for a reason — the water in the mix extracts compounds the alcohol alone won’t. Higher proof is not better here.

On the ratio: the FDA standard of identity (21 CFR 169.175) is 13.35 oz of beans per gallon at not less than 35% ABV — which works out to about 0.83 oz per 8 oz cup. So 1 oz to 8 oz is a shade stronger than single-fold. That’s deliberate; it’s a better extract for it.

On the beans: buy online, by weight. Grade A Madagascar gives the classic round, creamy profile. Grade B (extract grade) is drier and cheaper and is what a lot of people extract with — either works, and by-weight online is a fraction of grocery-store pricing.

Keep the beans submerged. This is the only way to get it wrong.

Once you’re hooked, run a Mother jar: see Vanilla Extract, Perpetual Mother Jar. Background on the ingredient itself is in Vanilla Extract.