Name: To Make Extract of Vanilla
Ingredients: 1 gallon of proof spirits; 1 pound of vanilla beans

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 ↓

To Make Extract of Vanilla

Ingredients

1 gallon of proof spirits
1 pound of vanilla beans

Directions

Prepare

Crush the vanilla beans in a marble mortar.
Combine the crushed beans with the proof spirits in a container.

Steep and strain

Let the mixture stand for five to six weeks, shaking it occasionally.
Strain the extract as needed.

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).
Spirit + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together53 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Spirit + beanstop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Vanilla beans: Provide the main flavor compounds that dissolve into the alcohol to make the extract.
Proof spirits: Act as the solvent that extracts and carries the vanilla flavor from the beans.