How to make your own homemade vanilla extract

Every time I buy vanilla I always have to stare at the bottles for a few minute contemplating if I should pay the extra cost for “Pure Vanilla” versus the imitation stuff.  Provided the real stuff costs 15 times more than the fake stuff when I walk away with my little eye dropper worth of pure vanilla extract for the small fee of $7.99.  Just for the record $638.72 per gallon, which makes gasoline look pretty cheap.

The last time I made this purchase I decided this is the last time I would be buying vanilla and in the future I would simply make my own.  After looking into the process I was blown away by how simple it was.  Take some vanilla beans seep them in some alcohol and wait until it looks like vanilla.  There are many advantages to making your own vanilla first of which is cost.  For the same $7.99 I purchased 2 ounces of vanilla for I can make 12.68 ounces of my own.  Another great benefit is as soon as you start looking for vanilla beans online you will see there are many different types to choose from creating your own special blends using beans from different areas as well as a variety of alcohol to infuse it in.

Many recipes I came across describe how to make super high concentration versions that require to to reduce your usage by quarter or half.  I decided to attempt to make some single strength vanilla so mine should be similar to that purchased in the stores.  I confirmed that commercial vanilla extract has 13.35 oz. of vanilla beans per gallon of alcohol.  Provided I am using 375 ml of alcohol in my batch I would need 1.33 ounces of vanilla beans which equates to approximately 2.5 beans, which I picked up for $2.99 for 3 pods.  Next was alcohol choice, for this you want something about 70 proof (35% alcohol) some obvious choice in this range are vodka, rum, or bourbon.  With a desire to keep costs low and a desire to be able to see how the liquid’s color changed I went with the second cheapest 375 ml bottle of vodka I could find (I splurged and spent the extra 50 cents).

Step 1: As mentioned above the process is very easy, you start by splitting the vanilla beans lengthwise.

Step 2: Take the split beans and cut them to one inch lengths.

Step 3: Insert cut beans into bottle of vodka

Step 5: Shake bottle (when you think about it)

Within a few days your alcohol will begin to get dark and have a nice vanilla smell, but keep holding out for the good stuff.

After about a month your vanilla should be fully infused and have some vanilla with approximately the same strength as the expensive stuff you buy in the store at a fraction of the cost.

Now at this point you have a couple options:

Option #1: Screen out the vanilla beans (and fragments) and if beans (after dried)are still fragment place them into a sealed container with a few cups of sugar to make your own vanilla sugar.

Option #2: Let the vanilla to continue to infuse and have progressively stronger vanilla.  For super flavor shake before using to get some of the bean fragments into your measurement.

Option #3:  Top off the bottle with alcohol after use to have a nearly endless supply of vanilla.  Eventually you will need to add a couple more beans.

How much does it cost to run my kitchen appliances?

Just a simple decision of how you cook your food can save you a significant amount of money on your utility bills.  How much you exactly save depends on what your utility company charges per kWh of electricity, which can vary depending on where you live,  the time of year, and/or the time of day.  Below is a map of some average electricity prices across the United States.

I fortunately live in WA where electricity prices are quite low (6.31 cents per kWh) but the decision on which appliance to use should still be the same if you live in New York or Hawaii.

Kitchen appliances are measured in wattage which is a product of the voltage and current requires to run the appliance.  So if you have a 120V appliance which ran 0.5 amps of electricity it would have a wattage of 60 watts (i.e. 60W light bulb)  By looking at the various wattages of kitchen appliances we can determine the cost to run each of them.  Below are my calculations of this below:

So looking at this chart you should be able to determine that you should be using your microwave to boil the hot water for your tea in the microwave for 2 minutes versus using the stovetop which could take 3 times as long as using the stovetop using over 3 times the energy and money. 

Another interesting revelation is cooking a roast in a Crockpot for 4-5 hours saves 2700 watts of electricity or a little over $0.16, sure this is just pennies but doing so over a year can save nearly $60 as well as help your carbon footprint.