Make Your Own Vanilla Extract and Yogurt

Photo compliments of Dorner Stroud

You can’t do everything yourself.  Appendectomies and winning a horse race come to mind.

But, in my humble opinion, when it comes to food, too many consumers think ‘ya gotta buy it.’   Fortunately, more and more, “We few, we happy few..” (Shakespeare, Henry V)  explore how to grow our own herbs, make our own salad dressings, and even brew beer.

Lately, I’ve run across a couple of more things to add to my ever-expanding repertoire.  Both of them are very simple, for my simple mind.  Yogurt.  Vanilla Extract.

Ever price vanilla extract?  $4 to $8 per small bottle!  You might as well be buying shots of whiskey at an upscale bar.  Well, you sorta are.  Vanilla extract has only two ingredients, vanilla beans and alcohol, eliminating the need to take off shoes and socks to finish counting.

After 30 Days, Vodka with Beans added.

For the alcohol, I purchased a very cheap vodka (less than $10 a liter), and ordered a package of 30 assorted vanilla beans from Amazon ($12.95).

Here’s the process:  Pour out a little bit of the vodka (I suggest a vodka tonic.), but only enough to make room for the beans. Cut the vanilla beans into half inch pieces (no need to split and seed the beans), and put them in the vodka bottle.  Shake the bottle once a day for 30 days.  Presto!  Enough vanilla extract to last a lifetime of baking.  Or, you can do what I did;  buy some cute little bottles and make gifts for your half-baked friends. (See photo at the top of the page)

On to yogurt, which is so simple even a knave or a fool can make it.  Buy a quart of milk, pour it in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Let it cool.  Stir in a couple of heaping spoonfuls of yogurt that has active culture.  Put the mixture in a bowl, cover it and let it sit on a kitchen counter for a day, or about 12-15 hours.  

When it’s thickened, strain the new yogurt through a clean dishtowel, just to separate out some moisture and make it even thicker. Cover the bowl and store it in the refrig for the creamiest and most flavorful yogurt you’ll ever taste.

See, it’s just not that hard to be Mr. Culinary Cool.  And now, at the next Super Bowl party, you can brag to your brawny pals who related how they pressed over 300 pounds.  “That’s nothing!  I made my own yogurt!”