Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumEek, the price of vanilla!
I havent bought vanilla in ages, having had one of those giant Costco bottles of the stuff that lasted me for years. I just about fell over when I went to buy another bottle. Is there some kind of vanilla shortage I wasnt aware of?
On a related note, I had a backup bottle of vanillasupposedly really Mexican vanilla, picked up in Cozumel. It turned out to be nasty artificial stuff that went right down the drain. Someone saw a tourist coming.
Irish_Dem
(47,131 posts)I have no idea why vanilla costs so darn much.
Sedona
(3,769 posts)Almost $11 for a tiny bottle of McCormick vanilla extract
Why can't I ever find chestnuts for my stuffing?
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)I think it's just liquor (bourbon?) and vanilla beans.
lapfog_1
(29,205 posts)vodka...
1 cup your favorite alcohol with 7 vanilla beans in a glass jar.
You have to wait like 8 weeks shaking the bottle holding the beans (cut once lengthwise) which are completely immersed in the alcohol about once or twice a week.
BTW. Madagascar vanilla beans are running around $9.95 PER BEAN right now.
So like $80 to make a cup (8 fl oz) of homemade.
But the same bean in a bunch of 25 is more like $120... a much more reasonable $4.80 per bean.
kimbutgar
(21,163 posts)The places the beans grow are being destroyed. So there is less supply. I heard about this of years ago about how foods we take for granted will no longer exist in 20 years. And the fake vanilla is ghastly.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)split the beans, put in the bottle of vodka, leave it in a closet for a month (or a year) - it will get dark brown and smell wonderful - fill your small bottles with it and voila!
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)I needed 1/4 tsp of poultry seasoning for a recipe. A bottle cost between 4 and 5 dollars. I improvised with a little of this and a little of that. It tasted fine!
Do you have an Aldi near you? Sometimes you can get a bargain in there. Good thing about vanilla, it lasts forever.
blaze
(6,362 posts)Maybe this is common in some stores? I have no idea.
But I have a cupboard full of old, rarely used spices that I feel much better about tossing now that I know I can just buy a bit at a time. I am probably way too excited about this.
pansypoo53219
(20,981 posts)did get a bottle from a pal who went to mexico. hope its ok. NEXT TIME BEANS!!!
jmowreader
(50,560 posts)This is what I use when I can't get good Mexican vanilla:
https://www.jrwatkins.com/gourmet.aspx?facet=%7BB08C6E44-C83B-470F-95A8-AA1C38EA08F5%7D
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)No saying one cyclone can be chalked up to that, of course, but from Quartz Media in August:
Cyclone Enawo wreaked havoc on Madagascar, inflicting enough damage on the worlds biggest vanilla producer to roil the global vanilla trade and send prices to a record high of more than $600 per kilogram. And as farmers on the ground have worked to recover in subsequent months, those prices have trickled down to consumers in places thousands of miles away from the island nation.
I remember a couple years ago when limes went through the roof. In my nice safe kitchen I googled to find out why my little limes were so expensive. Turned out out drug cartels were shaking down lime growers in central America. Most of course had to knuckle and pass the price on, but others armed themselves and were fighting, making me wonder if my limes were harvested and trucked out under armed guard. Lime wars.
PennyK
(2,302 posts)And if your market carries Badia, the ethnic spice brand, that's also pretty cheap, and has no sugar added.