Name: Composition of Vanilla Extract
Ingredients: 100 grams vanilla beans, cut into small pieces; 200 grams coarse sugar; 650 cc alcohol; 350 cc water

Why it works: Vanilla and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Composition of Vanilla Extract

Ingredients

100 grams vanilla beans, cut into small pieces
200 grams coarse sugar
650 cc alcohol
350 cc water

Directions

Prepare the mixture

Mix alcohol and water in a bowl.
Macerate the vanilla in 500 cc of the alcohol‑water mixture for 12 hours.
Drain off the liquid and set it aside.

Percolate

Beat the macerated vanilla with the sugar into a uniform powder.
Pack the vanilla‑sugar mixture in a percolator and pour the reserved liquid over it.
Gradually pour the remaining alcohol‑water mixture until you obtain 1,000 cc of tincture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Vanilla + beanstop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Beans + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,587 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vanilla beans: Provide the flavor compounds that are extracted into the alcohol and water.
Alcohol: Dissolves the vanilla flavor compounds and preserves the finished extract.
Coarse sugar: Mixed with the macerated vanilla to form a powder that helps pack the percolator evenly.

The step that matters

Gradually pour the remaining alcohol‑water mixture. Pouring too fast can channel liquid through the packed vanilla‑sugar powder unevenly, so some flavor is left unextracted. A slow, steady flow lets the solvent saturate the material and pull out flavor evenly.