VANILLA EXTRACT

agh!!

Hi, I know this is a long shot but does anyone know where I can buy vanilla extract in Tipperary?

agh!!

agh!! wrote: »

Hi, I know this is a long shot but does anyone know where I can buy vanilla extract in Tipperary?

Any supermarket.....in the baking section.

muckety

if you have Marks and Spencer anywhere near you they do a good organic extract.

dubh101

Most health food shops should have it too.:)

Acoshla

Tesco

CJhaughey

I find health food stores to be good for vanilla extract, most supermarkets seem to carry only those tiny bottles of vanilla essence which is both expensive and rubbish.
The best I have found comes in brown glass bottles
Like this one

dubh101

T he brand I have is Spice Rack,pure vanilla extract,1fl.oz. bottle.brown bottle in a box.:)

moonflower

CJhaughey wrote: »

I find health food stores to be good for vanilla extract, most supermarkets seem to carry only those tiny bottles of vanilla essence which is both expensive and rubbish.
The best I have found comes in brown glass bottles
Like this one

That one is sold in Dunnes.

OP if there's an Aldi near you give it a try. 2 weeks ago I picked up a trio of Vanilla, Almond and Lemon extract from there for €2 or so which is cheaper than a bottle of just the vanilla in Dunnes.

You could also try making your own, you just need vodka and some vanilla pods. Search it, there's loads of blogs that show how to do it.

bennm521

ive used the one in the brown bottle its great stuff

Little Alex

You could also try making your own. In fact, your post reminded me that I needed to make up another batch!

Take three vanilla pods and split them down the middle with a sharp knife. Scrape the seeds out of the two pod halves and then snip the empty pods into 1" lengths. Add pods and seeds to a jar with about 200ml of spirits: vodka, or even better, whiskey, rum or brandy. Leave for at least a week, ideally longer. Give the jar a quick shake every day - you'll see the liquid getting darker day after day. After this, strain the liquid and you have delish home-made vanilla extract. The small bottle in the photo is what I have left from the last brew.

You can buy 10 vanilla pods on eBay for £3 or so delivered from the UK.



That Nielsen-Massey stuff looks the business alright, but I don't know how much it costs. I don't know if making your own turns out cheaper, but I like to do it anyway. Just one of those things.

Sigma Force

I find some of them have a bit too strong an alcohol flavour would the homemade version be the same or would the vanilla overpower it?

Didn't know this until recently but aparently you can reuse the vanilla pod itself just dry it out and reuse a few times for adding flavour to things.

Deffo. going to give the homemade version a go.
Quick ques. do you strain it using muslin?

cormie

I've a litre of the Nelsen Massey organic extract pictured above. The thing is, it's probably the best quality extract out there, but it's nothing compared to just using a vanilla pod itself! I think the alcohol taste ruins it!

I got a 200gm bag of organic vanilla pods for what worked out to be 20eur, I had a count and there were I think 68 pods in it which works out at about 30c each, compare that to what you pay in a health shop here for 2, on average about 6eur for 2 organic ones and it's madness, 10 times cheaper! The litre of Nelsen Massey cost me about 27euro. It helps that my blender tears the pods up to microns I guess, but you just can't beat a pod. I haven't found a good use for the extract yet, it's just too alcoholly!

CJhaughey

cormie wrote: »

I got a 200gm bag of organic vanilla pods for what worked out to be 20eur,

Where do you get them for that price?

cormie

Infinity wholefoods, unfortunately, to get an order from them shipped to Ireland there is a very large minimum order value :eek:

They sell a lot of top quality foods though. I went in with a few friends and we got a pretty big order between the lot of us

CJhaughey

Thanks Cormie, I may try some of the Ebay sellers, they seem to be doing good deals on Vanilla pods as well, 100 pods for £19stg

cormie

Not bad, mine were 17stg at the time, is that organic though and reputably organic if so?

CJhaughey

cormie wrote: »

Not bad, mine were 17stg at the time, is that organic though and reputably organic if so?

Nope not organic unfortunately, thats delivered though!

Little Alex

cormie wrote: »

I've a litre of the Nelsen Massey organic extract pictured above. The thing is, it's probably the best quality extract out there, but it's nothing compared to just using a vanilla pod itself! I think the alcohol taste ruins it!

I got a 200gm bag of organic vanilla pods for what worked out to be 20eur, I had a count and there were I think 68 pods in it which works out at about 30c each, compare that to what you pay in a health shop here for 2, on average about 6eur for 2 organic ones and it's madness, 10 times cheaper! The litre of Nelsen Massey cost me about 27euro. It helps that my blender tears the pods up to microns I guess, but you just can't beat a pod. I haven't found a good use for the extract yet, it's just too alcoholly!

Yeah, the price of vanilla pods if you buy them individually in ths shops is ridiculous. In fact, you make a good point: if a pod works out at only 30 cent each why bother using extract?

I just like using the extract and I find a touch of brandy or whiskey is not unwelcome. However, I would only use extract in something that is being baked, not in something that isn't.

As regards an overly alcoholly flavour due to adding extract, you need to bear in mind that ethanol alcohol already boils and starts to evaporate at 78 degrees Celsius. There is a very interesting discussion on this topic here. It is reckoned that up to 70% of alcohol evaporates off when mixed into something that is baked for one hour. The extract I make is quite potent and you would only need about 10 to 15ml, which would leave only a couple of millilitres remaining distributed throughout the entire cake when it's done.

Now, if and when I get around to eventually trying to make some home-made ice cream I will definitely be using the pod and not extract as this would otherwise certainly taste too strongly of booze. Using the pod here would also give you that lovely, speckled look of real ice cream.

Orby

Cormie: Where did you buy the litre of N, MAssey - I am going through bottles of this every few days and it is costing me an absolute fortune.
Thanks

Edit - Im also looking for N Massey vanilla powder at a decent price. Thanks

cormie

Jaysus, what are you using it in so much? Is it your tipple?

I got it in a bulk order from Infinity Wholefoods in the UK. You'll need to be buying a good amount of stuff (£800+!!!) for them to ship an order to Ireland though

http://www.infinityfoodswholesale.co.uk/catalogue/invoicecat-1.xls

That's the catalogue

rubadub

CJhaughey wrote: »

I find health food stores to be good for vanilla extract, most supermarkets seem to carry only those tiny bottles of vanilla essence which is both expensive and rubbish.
The best I have found comes in brown glass bottles
Like this one

I saw this in tesco in ballybrack, €6.70. "Essence" usually means it is synthetically produced, like you can get various alcohol type esters that taste of pineapple or bananas, while "extract" should mean it is made from real vanilla.

cormie

Ok Orby, I still haven't used any of my 1l bottle of Nielsen-Massey Organic Vanilla Extract since posting above. I've used loads of vanilla pods, the extract I just can't find use for. It's yours if you want it. Considering 118ml goes for over a tenner in health shops of the same stuff, 1l would be valuable enough so let me know if you're close enough to make it worthwhile to collect it

cormie

Hi again Orby, just bumping this, let me know if you're interested