Man Cat's Homemade Vanilla Extract

Several weeks ago, Krissy and I ran out of vanilla extract. Actually, we ran out a few months ago and tried to subsist without it, to no avail. We were faced with the quandary of buying extract which, as you may know, is expensive. Then there's the question of whether or not said extract is any good. Naturally we took the path less traveled and decided to make our own. With that decision made, and some money in hand we were off to the discount liquor store. 

Perusing the liquor store was quite fun. We enjoy looking at the art on the bottles and the different names quite a bit; I'd say we spent around a half hour just browsing looking at different bottles. There are definitely some intriguing wares that might be interesting.

Eventually we decided on the middle-sized bottle of Bacardi's Superior (light) Rum. I guess vodka is traditional, but who likes traditional?  After snagging our giant bottle of liquor we went to ShopRite to find a proper bottle. We settled on one of those oil and Vinegar type things. It was cheap and should work out fine. The bottle is not ideal, but thus far it has served its purpose.

We began by slicing the vanilla beans in half and then further cutting them into half-inch pieces or so. I'm not sure if scraping the seeds is helpful for extract like it is in other recipes; honestly I think you can leave them. You'll need a sharp knife, because the beans are a bit hard to cut through, and let's be honest, everyone should have some good, sharp knives anyway.

Next, we dropped the cut pieces of bean into the oil and vinegar bottle and measure out 2 cups of  rum. which we then added to the bottle.

This is what that looks like, in case you are curious.

Once you've got the rum and vanilla in the bottle, seal it up tight. In our case I put plastic wrap over it (which I later replaced with a plastic bag). You're going to want the bottle to be airtight so you can vigorously shake it without losing that precious vanilla (or rum). Now make yourself useful and give the bottle a nice solid shake. You're going to want to do this shaking business every day, just so you know. Just for a minute, nothing that begins to resemble exercise, so don't worry. In about a month you'll have usable extract, and in three to six months your vanilla will be nice and perfectly infused. 

If your bottle is running low, just add more beans and/or rum as needed. 

Enjoy!

What you'll need:

• (airtight) bottle
• funnel (to ease pouring)
• sharp knife or xacto blade (which may be too sharp)
• forearms
• 10 vanilla beans
•  2 cups of vodka or light rum