Extract of Vanilla
Ingredients
Directions
Make the extract
Break the vanilla bean into inch pieces.
Cover the pieces with cold water and let them stand in a tightly corked bottle for four days.
After four days, add ½ pint of the best alcohol.
Let the mixture sit for one week.
Transfer the extract to another bottle.
Make the second extract
Add more than ½ cup of alcohol to the remaining vanilla bean.
The second extract will be ready when the first is used up.
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
What each ingredient does
- Vanilla bean
- Supplies the flavour compounds that the alcohol and water draw out over time.
- Alcohol
- Dissolves and preserves the vanilla flavour compounds, keeping the extract stable.
- Cold water
- Helps draw flavour from the split bean before the alcohol is added.
The step that matters
Cover the pieces with cold water and let them stand for four days. Vanilla flavour is extracted slowly, so the bean needs the full resting time in a sealed bottle. Cutting the time short leaves the extract weak.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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