Making Vanilla Extract
This is a gift from a family gourmet who put together Ina Garten’s vanilla extract recipe. The ingredients are pretty pricey initially but over time you’ll save. You’ll be making a larger volume and the price per ounce of your homemade vanilla will be much cheaper. Plus, as you use your homemade you can simply add more vodka (bourbon or rum) to your jar. Believe me, if you’re using imitation vanilla to save you might wish to read about the making of imitation vanilla. It will bring you back to this recipe. Here are a few of my suggestions. Vodka will give a more pure taste to the vanilla extract. For a change up flavor try bourbon or rum. While Madagascar beans are premium (and a little difficult to find and price may be prohibitive) you can use other vanilla beans or do a mixture of beans. Grade B beans, too, can add more vanilla taste. Grade B beans tend to be drier and broken. They may have split open from the dryness and have little paste inside if at all. But with this dryness may come more flavor.
From my balcony of the Grand Floridian, DisneyWorld … an absolutely fabulous vacation. You might be thinking rides, and yep, I did rides but this was a vacation of great food too. We were lucky enough to stay on the concierge floor, meaning we had all day long access to food & drinks. Many of the taste treats were prepared in the kitchens of the Grand Floridian’s five star restaurants. But we didn’t just eat here.
