Re: Scored some Vanilla

"Denise in NH" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I make my own vanilla extract. Split a vanilla bean in two and add to a
pint of good quality vodka. Let it sit in a cool dark closet for a
couple of months. I've been doing this for many years and have given it
away as gifts.

Denise (in flooded NH)

What a great idea. Thank you - sounds like something I can do!

Hope you dry out soon.

Elaine

Denise in NH said:

I make my own vanilla extract. Split a vanilla bean in two and add to a
pint of good quality vodka. Let it sit in a cool dark closet for a
couple of months. I've been doing this for many years and have given it
away as gifts.

Denise (in flooded NH)

I make my own vanilla sugar. I have a jar of caster sugar with bits of
vanilla bean buried in it. This perfumes the sugar nicely. As you use it
you just top it up. Every so often I will fish out a piece of bean and
use it for cooking. They are so expensive now that I can't afford to use
a whole one!

There seems to be general agreement that the best vanilla beans come
from Madagascar, and French vanilla extract made from them is superior.
I get my vanilla from Herbie's Spices (the antipodean equivalent of
Penzey's). They sell the smaller Papua New Guinea beans at 2 for $4.97
and Tahitian beans at $7.95 each (average weight 5 to 8 gm). Their
vanilla extract is genuine Mexican two fold, whatever that means.

They grow vanilla in Fiji, but it's not marketed seriously, which tells
you more about the Fijians than it does about their beans!

Christine