Vanilla Bonanza

I'm still looking for ways to use the alcohol in the bar.  My super-weak cocktails a few times a week use well under an ounce each.  It's basically flavored water.  I did some math, and it would take 48 drinks to use a fifth of something.  That's why I keep dumping scary amounts into my cooking and boiling it off.  The martini jam and mincemeat knocked off about four months of actually drinking anything.

So I decided to buy a pack of vanilla beans and make 8 ounces of vanilla extract with bourbon.  I still have most of a bottle of KLP extract made with potato vodka, but that's for when it's the only extract option.  This one would be for the other 51 weeks of the year.

DO NOT buy vanilla beans at the grocery store!  They are $11 each, and you have no idea how old they are.  Go on Amazon or somewhere online you've bought spices before.  You get better prices there anyway, but the 2020-2021 growing season was phenomenal.  I got 25 for $12, for what is usually the second most expensive spice in the world.

As for the extract itself, it's the same procedure as before.  Split the beans, stuff them in a bottle, and fill it up with alcohol of choice: vodka, rum, bourbon, or brandy.  Vodka will be the most neutral, brandy the least.  Rum and brandy bring sugar.  Bourbon (or whiskey) is an almost fruity depth.  Regardless, you need to let it sit for at least six months and shake it regularly, every day at first.  I was using a clear maple syrup bottle, so it has to live in the extract cabinet, where it's dark.  If you have a dark tinted bottle, it can be out in the light.

You will notice that the new bourbon mix is the same color as the 18+ month old vodka version.  The final result will be much darker.  I won't even start to use it until at least next summer.

Since I still have a lot of vanilla beans left, I cut up one to set in a container of sugar to make vanilla bean sugar for whatever recipe I want to use it in.  The rest are in a quart jar, and I have about six months to use them before they start to dry out.  I should probably get a new FoodSaver, but I wasn't using it much even before the sealer went out.

So don't be surprised if I start using vanilla beans in my recipes.  I still have over half the package left.  I will offer alternatives using vanilla extract or paste.  You just won't have the pretty beans floating in it.