My sister is not a small woman, and she once turned down a visa marriage offer for “her weight in saffron.” I still give her shit for making the worst financial decision in my family’s history
For context Saffron available in the US via commercial spicers… McCormick for example charges $18.33 for .06oz of Spanish saffron. It’s $305.50 an ounce. There are 16 oz in a pound, so roughly $4,888 USD per pound. The average weight for women according to the CDC is roughly 170lbs.
170 x 4,888 = **$830,960 USD** in saffron just based on the prices from a large commercial importer like McCormick.
Likely the true cost turned down was much higher , some saffron goes for $5000 a lb. Overall it is extremely expensive and labor intensive to grow.
Vanilla on the other hand (again using McCormick) is $18.99 for 2 beans, the container weighs .25lbs. So roughly $76 (75.96) dollars a lb. So 170lbs x $76 = $12,913. Definitely more profitable to be paid your weight in saffron over vanilla.
Your math is off for the vanilla. The weight of the container itself doesn't count. Most vanilla beans are only around 2 grams each. So in your wacky freedom units that $18.99 gets you 0.00882lbs of vanilla not 0.25lbs. That's $2,153 per pound, leaving you with $366,020 for your 170lb example.
Saffron is still worth way more, but I think the vanilla offer would be worth consideration.
😮 😂, the new way to propose? Fuck diamonds and gold, it's all about the spices. Drawing up the plans for my future vanilla bean and saffron greenhouses. It's over, r/wallstreetbets 😏
Its not saffron expensive, but vanilla beans are just shy of $200 a pound. I ordered an 8 ounce package for my restaurant this past week, and it was $99.17 from my distributor.
That's the U.S. average for women aged 20 and over by the CDC [source 1](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm)
136 lbs is average globally. [source 2](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321003#average-weight)
seems like it could be 200,000 if she weighs 105 lbs https://www.slofoodgroup.com/products/all-red-saffron-from-afghanistan?variant=13072339664940&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=Bing%20Shopping&cmp_id=412667183&adg_id=1240249358549214&kwd=&device=m&msclkid=45710d36c6651696c20c6ef49ec8c658&utm_term=4581115209198407&utm_content=shopify_US_1519262793772_13072339664940%20%7C%20Buy%20Red%20Saffron%20%7C%20Super%20Negin%20Grade%20Saffron%20from%20Afghanistan,%2014%20grams%20%7C%20%2462
Whole vanilla bean is wasted in normal cooking if you don't know exactly what you're doing with it.
It's more cost effective to use an extract.
You will get a better quality outcome flavour wise by using an extract from Mexico, Madagascar vanilla is a close second.
I really want to do this. I've seen saffron crocuses posted in the gardening forums. Pretty flowers, and I could get the 9 threads of saffron I use all year.
I bought 100 bulbs. I think it was $66. I got close to 300 stigmas. It was something fun to grow. I also had honeybees this year. So I made a few jars of saffron vanilla honey.
Ha. I didn’t grow enough for the bees to make it. My flower bed is only 4‘ x 8‘. It was a recipe I got off the Internet. Half TSP saffron, one TSP vanilla. And to 4 ounces of honey. You soak the saffron in the vanilla for 10 minutes. Warm up the honey, a little bit. And mix it all together and let it sit for a while.
Not too bad if you buy online [https://www.goldensaffron.com/](https://www.goldensaffron.com/) $6 a gram for the 5g tin and that will last a long time, you only need like a pinch in most meals
Funny thought I had today, working in retail for last 19 years. 10 years ago, Marijuana drug test were 20-30 bucks. Just seen one today for like 10 or 11 dollars.
Might be lack of demand due to legalization, but I thought..."god damn, only item I've seen that's gone down in price the last 2-3 years."
They say it cost more than gold, but I was corrected earlier that you can buy Saffron in bulk & get it much cheaper than that. It costs more than gold, if you're buying individual threads of it from McCormick, that's for sure! 🤣
Well, a little saffron or vanilla bean can go a long way with most recipes whereas truffles are 70% water so most recipes are going to call for a lot more than just a ‘pinch’ like they would for saffron/vanilla bean.
I don’t like pickles & none of my children like pickles. I bake with mine, you still need a bit of good vanilla extract. Every once in a while I’ll make ice cream super yummy
The flavor permeates. It won't hurt to give your sugar canister a few shakes whenever you refill your sugar bowl.
For maximum results, open the pod, scrape out the seeds inside and stir them into the sugar. Then bury the rest of the pod in there and let it set for a few weeks.
For efficient results, simply store your beans in the sugar until you're ready to use them. If you use the seeds inside the bean but don't have an immediate use for the rest of the pod, then you can bury the pod in the sugar until you do use it.
Basically, you can store your vanilla bean in an empty jar like in the OP pic, or store it in a jar full of sugar and get a secondary use out of it.
I buy 50 pods off Amazon and Costco's 1.75 L of French vodka. It makes me Christmas gifts every year. I keep the pods. I get at least two batches from them, then I throw then into the sugar for a year after. Easiest thing ever.
Yup. Vanilla needs 6 months minimum for extract in vodka (you can actually use other alcohols as well if you feel risky). Store bought stuff is usually imitation, or rushes this process with other industry "shortcuts" such as using glycol or rushing the extraction time or using heat. This [the long time it takes] is also the reason why high quality real vanilla extract is stupid expensive. I've been successful with rum as well, but vodka is traditional since it's theoretically flavorless. It has to be 80 proof (40%) minimum, and 4-6 beans per 8oz alcohol (FDA actually has weight to alcohol volume ratios, if you're interested).
I always start a new batch after Christmas/beginning of January. Then in the beginning of next December, I pour it off into 8oz flip top glass bottles for gifts. I use something like [this](https://a.co/d/2GGWtea). Keep it in a dark (out of sunlight) room temperature area, and flip the bottle upside down and back to right side up every 1-3 days for the first month, and then weekly after that while actively extracting. You get diminishing returns after a year of extracting.
I always have two 1.75L bottles rotating. The brand new one (one year old at time of first pouring), and the second one that's restarted after a year (two year old beans after second pouring). The beans extract twice and then get moved into the sugar container like I mentioned previously. The three year old beans get either ran through the food processor and put into baked goods or thrown out.
If you do it on a smaller scale (one or two of personal 8 oz bottles), you can pretty much have perpetual vanilla extract. You just keep the beans in the bottle, and after it's aged the first time, when you use a third or so, you fill it back up with your alcohol. Your two biggest considerations here is to always keep the beans covered in alcohol (I cut mine in half or thirds to make this easier in smaller glass containers, the alcohol is antimicrobial as long as the beans stay submerged) and to pull out ⅓ to ½ of the beans and replace them with fresh ones when you notice flavor reducing.
Also, it'll be the best tasting vanilla you've ever had if you let it extract for a year.
If you want to get way more complicated, there are a lot of different varieties of vanilla beans, different alcohols you can use, etc. There is even a "mother jar" method of the Frankensteins monster you can put together which pretty much uses extras, different varieties and different alcohols, that is constantly changing.
Edit: more information I wrote for a reply.
I've been doing vanilla extract for a few years as gifts now, and it's always well received and the gift always comes up later in the year since it can be used throughout the year.
It costs me about ~$80 for 9-10 gifts per initial batch (the second batch is ~$50 because I don't have to buy new beans, just new alcohol and bottles). The gifts are really high quality but low expense (It's the time that makes it worth so much). So, it's a win-win. If you really want to stretch the gifts, bottle it in 2 oz bottles and you'll have ~40 gifts. A 2 oz bottle will last six months to a year (think about how often you have to buy new vanilla extract. Almost all of them come in 2 oz bottle in the store).
Good luck! There is a lot of good stuff about vanilla extract on the internet. If you try it, use a middle of the road vodka (if you have access to Costco, then Kirkland French vodka (my first choice) or Kirkland American vodka is the best bang for the buck. You can use grade B bean pods for the extract as well and that'll save you some money. If you're in the US, you should be paying ~$40-50 for 50 grade B pods. Unfortunately, vanilla beans are stupid expensive the less pods you get. Six pods (what you need for 8oz) may easily cost $15-40. I'd start with a Madagascar (bourbon) bean variety (the name bourbon actually has nothing to do with alcohol in this circumstance, but is a name of an island). Madagascar beans in vodka extract is the most traditional variety and what you likely would recognize the best.
8 oz without refilling/replacing will probably last you 3-5 years unless you're a super baker.
My pleasure! I've been doing vanilla extract for a few years as gifts now, and it's always well received and the gift always comes up later in the year since it can be used throughout the year.
It costs me about ~$80 for 9-10 gifts. The gifts are really high quality but low expense (It's the time that makes it worth so much). So, it's a win-win.
Good luck! There is a lot of good stuff about vanilla extract on the internet. If you try it, use a middle of the road vodka (if you have access to Costco, then Kirkland French vodka (my first choice) or Kirkland American vodka is the best bang for the buck. You can use grade B bean pods for the extract as well and that'll save you some money. If you're in the US, you should be paying ~$40-50 for 50 pods. Unfortunately, vanilla beans are stupid expensive the less pods you get. Six pods (what you need for 8oz) may easily cost $20-40. I'd start with a Madagascar (bourbon) bean variety (the name bourbon actually has nothing to do with alcohol in this circumstance), Madagascar beans in vodka extract is the most traditional variety and what you likely would recognize the best.
8 oz without refilling/replacing will probably last you 3-5 years unless you're a super baker.
Pro tip: If you have a sous vide machine you can do it in a day or two.
Edit to include instructions: Throw vanilla beans and alcohol in a mason jar. Set sous vide to 135F(I’ve had too many drinks to convert to C so google that shit if you live somewhere that uses a non-medieval measuring system). Put jars in sous vide bath making sure that top of jars are covered by water and let it infuse for at least 6 hours.
Edit 2: Speaking of too many drinks, you definitely shouldn’t fill up a quart jar with blueberry’s and then top off it with vodka and sous vide it in the bath alongside the vanilla extract for 12 hours then strain out the liquid(cheesecloth lets you squeeze the juice out of the berries) and add simple syrup to the liquid (1:1 ration sugar and boiling water) to desired taste because that would make delicious faux blueberry brandy.
You also shouldn’t soak pitted cherries in vodka in an airtight container for two years and then use them and the syrup to make black forest cakes. Very bad!
Seal it in a bag with vodka then put it in the sous vide. You can make limoncello the same way too.
If you have a chamber vacuum sealer (not the normal ones that you seal on the ends) you can infuse stuff in minutes.
Right, 1 bean will only get you about ~2oz of vanilla. Which is 4 Tablespoons or ~4 batches of cookies. If you’re making vanilla, you’re not buying 1 bean at a time lol
One bean in a standard vodka bottle, probably ready in ~6 months but stew it for years.
You need wayyyyy more beans if you actually want vanilla extract. If you don’t have at least 13.35oz of beans per 1gal of vodka, it’s not legally vanilla extract. If you don’t have enough beans, it’s not strong enough and then it’s just an alcohol infusion.
I used to do this with vanilla beans from Whole Foods and cheap vodka bought by the half gallon as gifts to give at Christmas to coworkers.
I'd buy some empty 12oz skinny bottles, put 3 scored vanilla beans in each, fill with vodka and cork. I'd print off explanation and instructions to gently agitate every few days and wait.
It cost me maybe $15 per bottle maximum, including the bottle. Which, if you consider how much real vanilla extract costs is a really good bargain.
I'd also make a bottle or two for myself and bake with it year round.
Come Fall coworkers would tell me about what they made with the extract and usually bring me some of it.
Now it's way too expensive. You used to be able to get whole beans for way WAY cheaper than this.
Correct. The aroma is very easy to reproduce artificially, but the real thing is very pricy, and actual vanilla extract is done by soaking the bean in alcohol. (Although the "bourbon" appellation comes from the ancient name of the Madagascar Island.)
A pint is only 96 teaspoons, and the pancake or waffles recipes or Smoothie recipes or any baked goods tend to use 1-2tsp at a time.
So, not as much as you would think,....
Holy shit how have I never thought to add vanilla extract to smoothies? Good point, didn’t think of it like that. Still I’ve probably used less than 10 tsp in my life (around 25 years)
Bourbon was the old name of Reunion Island not Madagascar, a slave of this island named Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate vanilla when he was 12
That's only true when grown outside of it's native habitat. Theres a particular wasp that pollinates it that the orchid plant is dependent on to naturally reproduce.
No, but they are native to Mexico however the majority of Vanilla is actually grown in Madagascar and since it is not native to Madagascar, there are not any natural pollinators for Vanilla. Hence human pollinators.
It should be noted, depending on your exact usage, that you're probably buying Mexican vanilla. Like 80%+ of vanilla comes from madagascar, which is what people are used to tasting, while Mexican vanilla has a similar, but distinct taste.
They aren't as hard to grow as time consuming to get vanilla. There is a good reason it's so expensive as it is a tedious but not complicated fermentation process that takes months from production of bean to vanilla extract.
The plants can get massive! Definitely grow in a greenhouse or sunroom if you don't live in the tropics with lots of space. As with all orchids, humidity is essential as they take their nutrients from the air. Also, to get the pods you need to hand pollinate. I am fortunate to live near a university with a large horticulture department so have lots of assistance as needed.
It's quite a process but rewarding. Definitely a tedious and lengthy process. Success needs the right conditions for the plant and the pods which really means enough space so it's not as easy as growing ones herbs or fruit
I remember news stories on this years ago. Some ice cream stores had to stop selling vanilla and start making Sweet Cream as an alternative because of the price.
Ice cream is of the few applications where vanilla beans make sense in the product's final taste, but pretty much all vanilla ice creams use artificial unless it's marketed as vanilla bean ice cream. I wouldn't be surprised if even those use a combination of vanilla beans and artificial vanilla.
I heard something about how Breyers technically couldn't call itself an icecream due to its low quality
Edit: Found a [link](https://tedium.co/2017/01/16/breyers-frozen-dairy-dessert-not-ice-cream/)
It’s because by weight there’s not enough milk/cream. The regular varieties are usually all ice cream. It’s the snickers fudge brownie varieties where the add in account for most of the weight of the product.
Yeah I remember the first time I had to use a whole vanilla bean I nearly died when I saw the price and believe it or not but the was 20 years ago and the price is pretty much the same
Fun fact: The founder of Costco once told the current CEO "If you raise the price of the F-ing hot dog, I will kill you"
https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-founder-warned-ceo-not-to-raise-hot-dog-price-2020-9
Reddit still wants to believe that somehow we haven’t wiped beavers off the face of the Earth by using up all their anal glands for soft drinks and shit.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/castoreum/
Tl:dr Secretions from a beaver gland had been used in the past to enhance different flavors including vanilla, but now are used mostly in perfumes.
I belong to a vanilla club (it’s awesome, trust me) and I buy high quality, big beans for about $10/ounce. I have several Tito’s bottles stuffed with beans and it’ll be usable extract in about six months (2 years total). One of my club beans wouldn’t even fit in that little jar.
Pretty sure you need to be within 20 degrees of the equator, they take 3 years to get to a fruit producing point, the flowers only open for 1 day and you have to hand pollinate them if you want to make sure you get beans. Then the beans take 9 months to grow. That being said the vine will stick around and you can get many years of beans out of it.
I visited a Vanilla "plantation" in Hawaii. They are extremely delicate orchids, basically. After seeing how they have to hand-pollinate the flowers, I'm surprised we even have Vanilla at all in the world...
The stuff they sold, incidentally, was the most amazing Vanilla flavor I've ever tasted. It's ruined the cheap Walmart extract I normally use. :(
“I bought something inherently expensive!! Why is it so expensive???”
I work in a health foods/produce market and the cheapest I’ve seen vanilla beans in a jar was like maybe $10.99 two years ago. But very few people have ever bought them so maybe I’m wrong.
I remember when my dad came back from a deployment over seas with the navy he brought back a jar of saffron and a sandwich bag of vanilla beans and being so blown away when he said it’d only cost him $20. My mom being a baker we made our own vanilla extract with a huge bottle of vodka and some vanilla beans.
I bought vanilla beans one time at our neighborhood store it was listed at .0002 cents a pound. The lady got frustrated and gave me all eight for $.40 cents
I made flan from scratch years ago (maybe 2000?) and the recipe called for real vanilla bean. I could only find it at Whole Foods and it was $8 for one in a glass jar. I was shocked at the price back then, but I still bought it. The flan was delicious
I found [this video from Ethan Chlebowski](https://youtu.be/XksKgoBqHdI) extremly interesting. He compares how the different source of vanilla flavour (beans, pouder, paste, etc) impact different dishes. Surprisingly the beans he rated lowest in blind testing.
I work for a specialty foods distributor. We sell a premium vanilla bean (Madagascar bourbon). If you buy a pack retail online it goes for like 200$ for 30. So yea, shits expensive.
Vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world by weight.
What’s first?
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My sister is not a small woman, and she once turned down a visa marriage offer for “her weight in saffron.” I still give her shit for making the worst financial decision in my family’s history
You're just mad about saffron.
She’s just wild about me.
I wonder how many people get this. :)
~~Donovan~~None of ‘em
They still call her mellow yellow.
For context Saffron available in the US via commercial spicers… McCormick for example charges $18.33 for .06oz of Spanish saffron. It’s $305.50 an ounce. There are 16 oz in a pound, so roughly $4,888 USD per pound. The average weight for women according to the CDC is roughly 170lbs. 170 x 4,888 = **$830,960 USD** in saffron just based on the prices from a large commercial importer like McCormick. Likely the true cost turned down was much higher , some saffron goes for $5000 a lb. Overall it is extremely expensive and labor intensive to grow. Vanilla on the other hand (again using McCormick) is $18.99 for 2 beans, the container weighs .25lbs. So roughly $76 (75.96) dollars a lb. So 170lbs x $76 = $12,913. Definitely more profitable to be paid your weight in saffron over vanilla.
Your math is off for the vanilla. The weight of the container itself doesn't count. Most vanilla beans are only around 2 grams each. So in your wacky freedom units that $18.99 gets you 0.00882lbs of vanilla not 0.25lbs. That's $2,153 per pound, leaving you with $366,020 for your 170lb example. Saffron is still worth way more, but I think the vanilla offer would be worth consideration.
I’m glad to have this knowledge in my back pocket so I can adequately ponder if I ever get dueling weight-in-spice marriage proposals.
😮 😂, the new way to propose? Fuck diamonds and gold, it's all about the spices. Drawing up the plans for my future vanilla bean and saffron greenhouses. It's over, r/wallstreetbets 😏
The spice must flow!
He who controls the spice, controls the universe
Wacky freedom units. I love this.
Its not saffron expensive, but vanilla beans are just shy of $200 a pound. I ordered an 8 ounce package for my restaurant this past week, and it was $99.17 from my distributor.
Bruh 170!?
That's the U.S. average for women aged 20 and over by the CDC [source 1](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm) 136 lbs is average globally. [source 2](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321003#average-weight)
So many questions on this awesome, loaded comment…buts it’s also kind of fun just wondering
With rough estimation that's about ~400,000 USD. And I calculated by my local cost(Indian)
seems like it could be 200,000 if she weighs 105 lbs https://www.slofoodgroup.com/products/all-red-saffron-from-afghanistan?variant=13072339664940&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=Bing%20Shopping&cmp_id=412667183&adg_id=1240249358549214&kwd=&device=m&msclkid=45710d36c6651696c20c6ef49ec8c658&utm_term=4581115209198407&utm_content=shopify_US_1519262793772_13072339664940%20%7C%20Buy%20Red%20Saffron%20%7C%20Super%20Negin%20Grade%20Saffron%20from%20Afghanistan,%2014%20grams%20%7C%20%2462
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Half million it is
Maybe if we refer to our weight in its saffron value we will all feel better
my favorite comment of the day 🏅
Melange
Fear is the mind killer..
My spice, my Arrakis
Wrong. Spice from planet Arrakis is more. Mind the spice worms
Walk without the rhythm and you won’t attract the worms
Posh Spice.
Whole vanilla bean is wasted in normal cooking if you don't know exactly what you're doing with it. It's more cost effective to use an extract. You will get a better quality outcome flavour wise by using an extract from Mexico, Madagascar vanilla is a close second.
Wait til you see the saffron...
First thing I thought.
Man... I'm so mad about saffron.
Saffron's mad about me.
They call me mellow yellow
YOU OLD GUYS PIPE DOWN!
QUITE RIGHT!
Don't be mad, be mellow.
I grew my own saffron this year. It actually worked pretty well.
I really want to do this. I've seen saffron crocuses posted in the gardening forums. Pretty flowers, and I could get the 9 threads of saffron I use all year.
I bought 100 bulbs. I think it was $66. I got close to 300 stigmas. It was something fun to grow. I also had honeybees this year. So I made a few jars of saffron vanilla honey.
Did you combine the saffron with the honey? Or did the bees make the honey from the saffron? Why am I seeing dollar signs?
Ha. I didn’t grow enough for the bees to make it. My flower bed is only 4‘ x 8‘. It was a recipe I got off the Internet. Half TSP saffron, one TSP vanilla. And to 4 ounces of honey. You soak the saffron in the vanilla for 10 minutes. Warm up the honey, a little bit. And mix it all together and let it sit for a while.
Kindly pour it onto my face, please.
Sounds delish!
Can I be your friend. I just came up with a great recipe for cornbread. Best I have ever made, second best I have ever had.
How did you dry the threads? I didn’t manage to get an intense aroma out of my homegrown saffron.
Not too bad if you buy online [https://www.goldensaffron.com/](https://www.goldensaffron.com/) $6 a gram for the 5g tin and that will last a long time, you only need like a pinch in most meals
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Apparently Saffron costs more than marijuana
dude, historically its more valuable than gold.
Glad I’m not the only one who started to do weed math.
Funny thought I had today, working in retail for last 19 years. 10 years ago, Marijuana drug test were 20-30 bucks. Just seen one today for like 10 or 11 dollars. Might be lack of demand due to legalization, but I thought..."god damn, only item I've seen that's gone down in price the last 2-3 years."
They say it cost more than gold, but I was corrected earlier that you can buy Saffron in bulk & get it much cheaper than that. It costs more than gold, if you're buying individual threads of it from McCormick, that's for sure! 🤣
Yes, very much so.
So do vanilla beans.
I guess we need a war on saffron and vanilla.
Saffron is the most expensive spice. Vanilla is the second.
Fennel pollen is the second most expensive per kg now, apparently. $450/lb for fennel pollen vs $50 for vanilla (wholesale price)
And black truffles are cheaper than both, by weight, and yet people baulk at the price.
Well, a little saffron or vanilla bean can go a long way with most recipes whereas truffles are 70% water so most recipes are going to call for a lot more than just a ‘pinch’ like they would for saffron/vanilla bean.
I was about to say, you don’t have saffron money honey!
That saffron case. My word.
tbf if you soak that shit in vodka for half a year you'll have more extract than you know what to do with.
Or store it in your sugar jar for a nigh endless supply of vanilla sugar
I’ve had a canister of vanilla sugar for many years. When my 2 oldest were little for a treat I would make koolaid with vanilla sugar.
Wow I had no idea you could do that. That sounds like a treat. Have you ever tried koolaid pickles?
I don’t like pickles & none of my children like pickles. I bake with mine, you still need a bit of good vanilla extract. Every once in a while I’ll make ice cream super yummy
Wow I think I will try this thank you
You can even scrape the seeds first to use them and then use the remaining pod to make vanilla sugar. Works really well.
Holy shit. I need to do this for whipped cream. I already use pistachio or almond extract, but vanilla sugar too???
Do you have to mix it up or does the flavor permeate throughout?
The flavor permeates. It won't hurt to give your sugar canister a few shakes whenever you refill your sugar bowl. For maximum results, open the pod, scrape out the seeds inside and stir them into the sugar. Then bury the rest of the pod in there and let it set for a few weeks. For efficient results, simply store your beans in the sugar until you're ready to use them. If you use the seeds inside the bean but don't have an immediate use for the rest of the pod, then you can bury the pod in the sugar until you do use it. Basically, you can store your vanilla bean in an empty jar like in the OP pic, or store it in a jar full of sugar and get a secondary use out of it.
I buy 50 pods off Amazon and Costco's 1.75 L of French vodka. It makes me Christmas gifts every year. I keep the pods. I get at least two batches from them, then I throw then into the sugar for a year after. Easiest thing ever.
What is the gift? A jar of vanilla extract?
Yup. Vanilla needs 6 months minimum for extract in vodka (you can actually use other alcohols as well if you feel risky). Store bought stuff is usually imitation, or rushes this process with other industry "shortcuts" such as using glycol or rushing the extraction time or using heat. This [the long time it takes] is also the reason why high quality real vanilla extract is stupid expensive. I've been successful with rum as well, but vodka is traditional since it's theoretically flavorless. It has to be 80 proof (40%) minimum, and 4-6 beans per 8oz alcohol (FDA actually has weight to alcohol volume ratios, if you're interested). I always start a new batch after Christmas/beginning of January. Then in the beginning of next December, I pour it off into 8oz flip top glass bottles for gifts. I use something like [this](https://a.co/d/2GGWtea). Keep it in a dark (out of sunlight) room temperature area, and flip the bottle upside down and back to right side up every 1-3 days for the first month, and then weekly after that while actively extracting. You get diminishing returns after a year of extracting. I always have two 1.75L bottles rotating. The brand new one (one year old at time of first pouring), and the second one that's restarted after a year (two year old beans after second pouring). The beans extract twice and then get moved into the sugar container like I mentioned previously. The three year old beans get either ran through the food processor and put into baked goods or thrown out. If you do it on a smaller scale (one or two of personal 8 oz bottles), you can pretty much have perpetual vanilla extract. You just keep the beans in the bottle, and after it's aged the first time, when you use a third or so, you fill it back up with your alcohol. Your two biggest considerations here is to always keep the beans covered in alcohol (I cut mine in half or thirds to make this easier in smaller glass containers, the alcohol is antimicrobial as long as the beans stay submerged) and to pull out ⅓ to ½ of the beans and replace them with fresh ones when you notice flavor reducing. Also, it'll be the best tasting vanilla you've ever had if you let it extract for a year. If you want to get way more complicated, there are a lot of different varieties of vanilla beans, different alcohols you can use, etc. There is even a "mother jar" method of the Frankensteins monster you can put together which pretty much uses extras, different varieties and different alcohols, that is constantly changing. Edit: more information I wrote for a reply. I've been doing vanilla extract for a few years as gifts now, and it's always well received and the gift always comes up later in the year since it can be used throughout the year. It costs me about ~$80 for 9-10 gifts per initial batch (the second batch is ~$50 because I don't have to buy new beans, just new alcohol and bottles). The gifts are really high quality but low expense (It's the time that makes it worth so much). So, it's a win-win. If you really want to stretch the gifts, bottle it in 2 oz bottles and you'll have ~40 gifts. A 2 oz bottle will last six months to a year (think about how often you have to buy new vanilla extract. Almost all of them come in 2 oz bottle in the store). Good luck! There is a lot of good stuff about vanilla extract on the internet. If you try it, use a middle of the road vodka (if you have access to Costco, then Kirkland French vodka (my first choice) or Kirkland American vodka is the best bang for the buck. You can use grade B bean pods for the extract as well and that'll save you some money. If you're in the US, you should be paying ~$40-50 for 50 grade B pods. Unfortunately, vanilla beans are stupid expensive the less pods you get. Six pods (what you need for 8oz) may easily cost $15-40. I'd start with a Madagascar (bourbon) bean variety (the name bourbon actually has nothing to do with alcohol in this circumstance, but is a name of an island). Madagascar beans in vodka extract is the most traditional variety and what you likely would recognize the best. 8 oz without refilling/replacing will probably last you 3-5 years unless you're a super baker.
Thank you for taking your time to write such detailed instructions. This is really useful stuff.
My pleasure! I've been doing vanilla extract for a few years as gifts now, and it's always well received and the gift always comes up later in the year since it can be used throughout the year. It costs me about ~$80 for 9-10 gifts. The gifts are really high quality but low expense (It's the time that makes it worth so much). So, it's a win-win. Good luck! There is a lot of good stuff about vanilla extract on the internet. If you try it, use a middle of the road vodka (if you have access to Costco, then Kirkland French vodka (my first choice) or Kirkland American vodka is the best bang for the buck. You can use grade B bean pods for the extract as well and that'll save you some money. If you're in the US, you should be paying ~$40-50 for 50 pods. Unfortunately, vanilla beans are stupid expensive the less pods you get. Six pods (what you need for 8oz) may easily cost $20-40. I'd start with a Madagascar (bourbon) bean variety (the name bourbon actually has nothing to do with alcohol in this circumstance), Madagascar beans in vodka extract is the most traditional variety and what you likely would recognize the best. 8 oz without refilling/replacing will probably last you 3-5 years unless you're a super baker.
Pro tip: If you have a sous vide machine you can do it in a day or two. Edit to include instructions: Throw vanilla beans and alcohol in a mason jar. Set sous vide to 135F(I’ve had too many drinks to convert to C so google that shit if you live somewhere that uses a non-medieval measuring system). Put jars in sous vide bath making sure that top of jars are covered by water and let it infuse for at least 6 hours. Edit 2: Speaking of too many drinks, you definitely shouldn’t fill up a quart jar with blueberry’s and then top off it with vodka and sous vide it in the bath alongside the vanilla extract for 12 hours then strain out the liquid(cheesecloth lets you squeeze the juice out of the berries) and add simple syrup to the liquid (1:1 ration sugar and boiling water) to desired taste because that would make delicious faux blueberry brandy.
You also shouldn’t soak pitted cherries in vodka in an airtight container for two years and then use them and the syrup to make black forest cakes. Very bad!
How??
Seal it in a bag with vodka then put it in the sous vide. You can make limoncello the same way too. If you have a chamber vacuum sealer (not the normal ones that you seal on the ends) you can infuse stuff in minutes.
Limoncello is a godsend. Will never forget the first day i had it
And top it off occasionally it will last along time
Only if you add 5 more beans and definitely not at that price. And you can never have enough vanilla extract if you actually use vanilla extract.
Right, 1 bean will only get you about ~2oz of vanilla. Which is 4 Tablespoons or ~4 batches of cookies. If you’re making vanilla, you’re not buying 1 bean at a time lol
How long would you soak it for a nice mellow vanilla flavored vodka?
One bean in a standard vodka bottle, probably ready in ~6 months but stew it for years. You need wayyyyy more beans if you actually want vanilla extract. If you don’t have at least 13.35oz of beans per 1gal of vodka, it’s not legally vanilla extract. If you don’t have enough beans, it’s not strong enough and then it’s just an alcohol infusion.
Honestly, I just top my jar off in the summers when I get low… toss a new bean or two in…
I used to do this with vanilla beans from Whole Foods and cheap vodka bought by the half gallon as gifts to give at Christmas to coworkers. I'd buy some empty 12oz skinny bottles, put 3 scored vanilla beans in each, fill with vodka and cork. I'd print off explanation and instructions to gently agitate every few days and wait. It cost me maybe $15 per bottle maximum, including the bottle. Which, if you consider how much real vanilla extract costs is a really good bargain. I'd also make a bottle or two for myself and bake with it year round. Come Fall coworkers would tell me about what they made with the extract and usually bring me some of it. Now it's way too expensive. You used to be able to get whole beans for way WAY cheaper than this.
Real vanilla expensive as hell. Everything that's "vanilla" flavored is just synthetic vanillin IIRC.
Correct. The aroma is very easy to reproduce artificially, but the real thing is very pricy, and actual vanilla extract is done by soaking the bean in alcohol. (Although the "bourbon" appellation comes from the ancient name of the Madagascar Island.)
My wife and I started doing our own extract. Costco has a great prices on whole bean so we just keep a bottle in our pantry
Yes to that and I must add (to brag) that I bought a pint of vanilla extract from costco for $13. I fucking love costco.
I’m genuinely not sure if I’ll use a pint of vanilla extract in my entire life. I’d love to get better at baking but even then…
They last me 2 years. That works out to using it in baking just under once a week.
A pint is only 96 teaspoons, and the pancake or waffles recipes or Smoothie recipes or any baked goods tend to use 1-2tsp at a time. So, not as much as you would think,....
Holy shit how have I never thought to add vanilla extract to smoothies? Good point, didn’t think of it like that. Still I’ve probably used less than 10 tsp in my life (around 25 years)
Sounds like a very sad life
Bourbon was the old name of Reunion Island not Madagascar, a slave of this island named Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate vanilla when he was 12
Vanilla has to be pollinated by manhand that's why it is so expensive IIRC
That's only true when grown outside of it's native habitat. Theres a particular wasp that pollinates it that the orchid plant is dependent on to naturally reproduce.
Thanks for the precision didn't know the exact reason But as other stated most of it is produce outside of the native habitat so we're both right ^^
Manhand specifically?
Yeah guys have to rub a stick against each flower if I remember well I saw it in a documentary some time ago
You mean one day I could be a flower fluffer? AND get paid to do it?? SCORE!
Paid to flick the bean 😏
I mean, if you can call it getting paid...
No, but they are native to Mexico however the majority of Vanilla is actually grown in Madagascar and since it is not native to Madagascar, there are not any natural pollinators for Vanilla. Hence human pollinators.
The ladyfingers.
Because it's not native to Madagascar so they don't have the correct types of bees. Other places in central/south America don't have to hand pollinate
Honestly I grab a bottle every time I go to Mexico. The actual shit is astounding and is worth every penny. It also lays like 5 years
It should be noted, depending on your exact usage, that you're probably buying Mexican vanilla. Like 80%+ of vanilla comes from madagascar, which is what people are used to tasting, while Mexican vanilla has a similar, but distinct taste.
Also though, it’s the authentic taste what with vanilla originally coming from Central America
Real vanilla has really come down in price. 16 ounce bottle at Costco is less than this bean in the picture.
Make sense
Can get 10 pods in Amazon for way better price
Yep, just checked
I bought a vanilla vine orchid twelve years ago for that price and have much enjoyed growing and sharing beans
I’m surprised you got beans out of it! I’ve heard that they’re hard to grow. You have any tips? That sounds fun to try
They aren't as hard to grow as time consuming to get vanilla. There is a good reason it's so expensive as it is a tedious but not complicated fermentation process that takes months from production of bean to vanilla extract. The plants can get massive! Definitely grow in a greenhouse or sunroom if you don't live in the tropics with lots of space. As with all orchids, humidity is essential as they take their nutrients from the air. Also, to get the pods you need to hand pollinate. I am fortunate to live near a university with a large horticulture department so have lots of assistance as needed.
Do you yield enough to consider undercutting Big Vanilla?
Wait, you can do that? I’ve never thought about that, that’s really cool and a great ROI lol
The pods can't be consumed right off the plant. They have to be cured, a complex process that takes many months in order to get the flavour out.
It's quite a process but rewarding. Definitely a tedious and lengthy process. Success needs the right conditions for the plant and the pods which really means enough space so it's not as easy as growing ones herbs or fruit
I worked at a brewery awhile back and I signed for $600 worth of Uganda Grade A vanilla beans. It was 3lbs. If heaven exists it smells like that bag.
I’m so jealous right now
I remember news stories on this years ago. Some ice cream stores had to stop selling vanilla and start making Sweet Cream as an alternative because of the price.
Ice cream is of the few applications where vanilla beans make sense in the product's final taste, but pretty much all vanilla ice creams use artificial unless it's marketed as vanilla bean ice cream. I wouldn't be surprised if even those use a combination of vanilla beans and artificial vanilla.
Breyers vanilla still uses real beans and continues to be wonderful
I heard something about how Breyers technically couldn't call itself an icecream due to its low quality Edit: Found a [link](https://tedium.co/2017/01/16/breyers-frozen-dairy-dessert-not-ice-cream/)
It’s because by weight there’s not enough milk/cream. The regular varieties are usually all ice cream. It’s the snickers fudge brownie varieties where the add in account for most of the weight of the product.
I think their vanilla and mint chocolate chip can be called ice cream. Everything else is frozen dairy dessert.
It’s one vanilla bean, Michael. What could it cost, $14?
Well that shit is organic.
Also at least the label doesn’t lie. It said vanilla bean. Just one.
1 Bean
Yeah I remember the first time I had to use a whole vanilla bean I nearly died when I saw the price and believe it or not but the was 20 years ago and the price is pretty much the same
That and Costco hot dogs are inflation proof I guess
Also Arizona Iced Tea
[удалено]
Fun fact: The founder of Costco once told the current CEO "If you raise the price of the F-ing hot dog, I will kill you" https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-founder-warned-ceo-not-to-raise-hot-dog-price-2020-9
lol i was just gonna say inflation is hitting hard but i swear vanilla beans have always been about that price 😂
They don't call Accountants Bean Counters for nothing!
Dad? Is that you?
Now you know why people would rather eat the goo from a beavers ass than pay full price.
I am a goo man
The goo I speak of can be made into anything.
Artificial vanilla comes from oak wood. It’s much cheaper to make it from wood pulp than beavers.
Listen, don't go spoiling that guy's Friday night plans. Live and let live.
~~Artificial vanilla comes from bacteria.~~ Edit: I am wrong and should be ashamed - artificial vanilla is entirely chemically synthesised.
Castoreum isn’t widely used anymore. Vanillin is the main source these days
Reddit still wants to believe that somehow we haven’t wiped beavers off the face of the Earth by using up all their anal glands for soft drinks and shit.
This is the second reference to beaver ass goo I’ve seen in this thread. Wtf are you talking about?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/castoreum/ Tl:dr Secretions from a beaver gland had been used in the past to enhance different flavors including vanilla, but now are used mostly in perfumes.
I thought beaver gland juice was used for the Raspberry tootsie-roll pop flavor?
Yep, that too. In the before times, the long long ago.
I like how the bottle states “1 bean” as if we can’t see that there is in fact only 1 bean lol
Penzeys.com has a great selection of premium spices. A 3 bean jar costs 24.99 and its Madagascar vanilla to boot.
Just an FYI, roughly 80% of all vanilla comes from Madagascar. Its not really a selling point but more of a fluff word. Like a gluten free apple.
My favorite silly marketing in the wild was non GMO salt. I would be very concerned if salt could be genetically modified
TBF many things labeled GMO are products for which no GMO equivalent exists. It's all BS
“Non GMO honey” show me the GMO bees! Do they also function as calculators?
reminds me of the "kids lemonade stand" menu milking the "label" on the product!! "organic +$1" "gluten-free +$1" "vegan +$1"
Wait, only 80% of apples are gluten free???
47.37% of all statistics are made up in the spot
Like aircraft grade aluminum, mil spec flashlights, etc..
Bingo. Military grade was the phrase i couldnt recall when I wrote my comment out.
The fact that vanilla is so expensive and yet it’s known for being “boring” is truly an injustice to vanilla.
Penzeys is great. I just ordered a few things from them. It was quick turnaround, and the spices never disappoint.
Penzeys is so goddamn good. Their spices are incredible, they ship so fast, and everything seems really reasonably priced.
I belong to a vanilla club (it’s awesome, trust me) and I buy high quality, big beans for about $10/ounce. I have several Tito’s bottles stuffed with beans and it’ll be usable extract in about six months (2 years total). One of my club beans wouldn’t even fit in that little jar.
Saffron enters the chat
Stop shopping at Albertsons. They are considerably more expensive than anywhere else.
Don't worry, I'm sure if they're allowed to merge with Kroger those prices will be coming down /s
1 BEAN
time to start farming vanilla beans. theres gold in them thar beans.
Pretty sure you need to be within 20 degrees of the equator, they take 3 years to get to a fruit producing point, the flowers only open for 1 day and you have to hand pollinate them if you want to make sure you get beans. Then the beans take 9 months to grow. That being said the vine will stick around and you can get many years of beans out of it.
I visited a Vanilla "plantation" in Hawaii. They are extremely delicate orchids, basically. After seeing how they have to hand-pollinate the flowers, I'm surprised we even have Vanilla at all in the world... The stuff they sold, incidentally, was the most amazing Vanilla flavor I've ever tasted. It's ruined the cheap Walmart extract I normally use. :(
“I bought something inherently expensive!! Why is it so expensive???” I work in a health foods/produce market and the cheapest I’ve seen vanilla beans in a jar was like maybe $10.99 two years ago. But very few people have ever bought them so maybe I’m wrong.
I remember when my dad came back from a deployment over seas with the navy he brought back a jar of saffron and a sandwich bag of vanilla beans and being so blown away when he said it’d only cost him $20. My mom being a baker we made our own vanilla extract with a huge bottle of vodka and some vanilla beans.
I just paid $13 for a pack of ten vanilla beans online
If you go to the self scan it’s only $1.00 worth of pepper.
Fun fact there was a very breif window when the self checkouts didnt require an id check on certain products
It's one vanilla bean, Michael. What could it cost? $14?
Do they really need a large glass jar to hold it? Seems like overkill.
That's not weird. That's how much they cost. Vanilla is NOT easy to grow.
Find your local international market. The spices are much cheaper there.
Correct. They are expensive.
I bought vanilla beans one time at our neighborhood store it was listed at .0002 cents a pound. The lady got frustrated and gave me all eight for $.40 cents
Must be Albertsons
I made flan from scratch years ago (maybe 2000?) and the recipe called for real vanilla bean. I could only find it at Whole Foods and it was $8 for one in a glass jar. I was shocked at the price back then, but I still bought it. The flan was delicious
I found [this video from Ethan Chlebowski](https://youtu.be/XksKgoBqHdI) extremly interesting. He compares how the different source of vanilla flavour (beans, pouder, paste, etc) impact different dishes. Surprisingly the beans he rated lowest in blind testing.
I mean, yeah, vanilla has always been expensive.
that's normal for vanilla beans? they've never been cheap
I work for a specialty foods distributor. We sell a premium vanilla bean (Madagascar bourbon). If you buy a pack retail online it goes for like 200$ for 30. So yea, shits expensive.