Vanilla Extract

[Sakkarin Profile]

I did a double take in the supermarket the other day when I saw bottles of Nielsen's vanilla extract for £14.00 (the larger bottles).

Last night I used the last drop of my old bottle, and thought I'd seek a cheaper alternative, and although the other brands/supermarkets seem far cheaper, the ingredients lists show that they are all very diluted with additives, so it's impossible for the layman to tell from the label exactly how much vanilla we're getting.

It's all very well buying Asda vanilla at a quarter of the price, but do you have to add four times as much to match the concentration, and end up with four times as much of the additives into the bargain?

Anyone got any ideas on this conundrum? I would have expected the supermarkets to try and copy the brand product, but I would imagine there is a great temptation to blur issue when the real thing is nearly £7 a jar. Even if it is only half the dilution, it would be a profit of £3.50 a jar.

Nielsen Massey is 58p a teaspoonful!


Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Extract
£6.93 for 60 ml, 58p per tsp
Ingredients: Glucose Syrup, Invert Sugar, Soft Brown Sugar, Madagascan Vanilla Extract, Water

ASDA Extra Special Madagascan Vanilla Extract
£1.75 60ml, 15p per tsp
Ingredients: Glucose Syrup, Invert Sugar, Soft Brown Sugar, Madagascan Vanilla Extract, Water

TESCO Vanilla Extract
£1.90 60ml, 16p per tsp
Ingredients: Water, Ethanol, Sugar, Vanilla Extract.

Dr. Oetker Large Madagascan Vanilla Extract
£3.95 95 ml , 21p per tsp
Ingredients: Invert Sugar Syrup, Glucose Syrup, Water, Vanilla Extract

[scullion Profile]

make your own?
i haven't tried it but it sounds like a better alternative.
all of those extracts are made with - extract?

[Sakkarin Profile]

Good call, although you have to wait 6 months till it's ready - that would be August...

[Badger's Mate Profile]

The NM one states on the label that 15ml extract = 1 vanilla pod

Do the others have an equivalent statement?

We've just been given a part bottle of vodka. We don't drink a lot of vodka. Maybe I should be making vanilla extract with it.

[scullion Profile]

there are other sites that indicate a lesser waiting time, like a month, so maybe it would be worth trying and testing it over different lengths of time.
i would try it for you - except that i have a new-ish bottle in the cupboard - and a pot of vanilla paste - and i don't often use either!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

The extract in the ingredients list will be the one made only from vanilla pods and solvent in an apparatus that looks like something from an alchemist’s lair

I’d have expected the solvent to be ethyl alcohol, but none of the brands mention this as an ingredient, which I’d have thought would be required

I use Ndali Ugandan vanilla, which to me tastes nicer than Nielsen-Massey
http://ndali.net/

I got it from Waitrose, currently £5.99
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/ndali-vanilla-extract/056265-28225-28226

That is an alcoholic extract without all the sugar, and because of that I find you can use a bit less

The one that keeps coming up as I search for the price is Taylor & Colledge, £6 for 100 ml on Ocado
Ingredients Organic Bourbon Vanilla Extract* (Water, Organic Alcohol, Organic Bourbon Vanilla Pods*), Organic Sugar*, *Fairtrade certified and sourced from Fairtrade producers

[Stokey Sue Profile]

After thoughts

Doesn’t Gill make her own vodka based vanilla?

The Ndali and the Taylor both work out to 30p/tsp so about half the price of Nielsen Massey, and for the amount I use it, that’s not excessive, the Ndali bottle is aluminium, and the extract seems to keep forever as it’s both airtight and light proof

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Costco used to do the best and cheaper vanilla extract but I haven't looked lately.

[Suelle Profile Website]

The biggest problem is that the cost of vanilla, in all it's forms, has rocketed over the last couple of years due to a failed harvest. (I forget where exactly - it was a few years ago and the repercussions are just becoming apparent in the retail prices.) So even making your own extract, which would possibly be cheaper than buying it, will be more expensive than it used to be, as pods will cost more too.

One answer is to think very carefully about whether vanilla is really necessary. Some cake recipes (particularly old ones) throw in vanilla regardless, even if there are stronger flavours in the cake. Many chocolate brands contain vanilla, so do you need to add more when you're using it in baking? IMO, the only time to use vanilla is if you want to make a vanilla flavoured product, which probably isn't very often.

[miss mouse Profile]

i haven't tried it but it sounds like a better alternative.
all of those extracts are made with - extract?

I have made it, it is easy, vodka, a split vanilla pod and just shake the re-purposed beer bottle from time to time. 3 months in the method I read.

I too read that the vanilla harvest had failed.

[Rainbow Profile]

Over 80% of the world's vanilla is grown on the island of Madagascar, which was hit with terrible weather a few years ago.
Failed crop yields have caused the prices of vanilla beans to soar, but also speculators went in and bought up the low yield crops and kept them off the market, to increase prices even more.
So it's a partly man-made shortage as well as the weather!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Yip, my vanilla extract is going strong.
I think the cost of the vodka makes me think twice about the price - but it lasts so long. In 10 years I've used 2ltr bottles, Tesco.

You can used it after a month, of leaving it in a dark cupboard, giving it a shake.

It really adds something lovely to those plain cakes, or custard puddings. Use sparingly, about a teaspoon, so you don't go through it very quickly.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Vanilla pods in Tesco: £6.50 for two!



I ended up getting Lidl vanilla extract, 38ml for 65p, that's about 8 teaspoonsful. It surely can't be THAT much more diluted than the pukka ones! I popped into Aldi and they do the same deal on their weeny vanilla bottle (looks like an "essence" bottle but is extract).

In practice I'm pretty certain I've always automatically toned down the amount of the Nielsen stuff I use, half a teaspoonful when the recipe says teaspoonful, you can smell how strong it is when you open the bottle.

There was a silly aside to this issue. I made some of that "Bakery style bread pudding" with the last of my old bottle of vanilla, using economy ingredients, including Lidl's ludicrously cheap 40p 800g wholemeal loaf. It seemed a rather daft extravagance adding a 58p teaspoonful of vanilla!

EDIT: Correction - I got the Aldi vanilla.