posted by Matthew @ 3:15 PM
Please note: I've moved to a new home at www.kayahara.ca. Please come visit me there for recent posts! I'm a professional translator with an interest in trying to make homemade versions of foodstuffs people usually buy, whether they're as simple as bread or complex as frozen dinners. I also have an abiding interest in exploring the meaning of "Canadian cuisine." In his book Stanley Park, Timothy Taylor breaks cooks down into two categories: Crips and Bloods. About Bloods, he writes: "Blood cooks were respectful of tradition, nostalgic even. Canonical, interested in the veracity of things culinary, linked to 'local' by the inheritance or adoption of a culture, linked to a particular manner and place of being. Blood cooks liked sweetbreads and pot-au-feu. Bloods ate tacos, bratwurst, borscht. They used lard and as much foie gras as they could get their hands on." That's a pretty good summary of how I feel about food.
4 Comments:
At 2:47 PM,
Anonymous said…
Very cool. Looking to do this myself, not sure I can wait 6 months to find out how yours turns out...that would leave me ...what, a year out from my own batch. Hmmm.
What kind of vodka? Premium better? matter at all?
Purveyor of beans? Online I presume? Cost?
Yours, Ian.
At 3:39 PM,
Matthew said…
Ian - I don't think it matters what kind of vodka you use. I used a mix of Iceberg and Luksusowa. The only thing that might make a difference is proof: if you can get a 50% abv vodka, that would probably get you slightly better extraction.
As for the vanilla beans, I bought 1/4 pound of extract-grade Madagascar beans (roughly 40 beans) from Vanilla Products USA. They arrived in about two weeks, and cost under $10.
At 4:23 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Matthew, I have no idea how I happened upon your blog, but glad I did. Since I'm coming in late to the conversation, are you making your own vanilla with the beans and vodka? I make my own kahlua and the beans are the most expensive part, I looked at the website you recommend on ebay and will be ordering some tomorrow. I notice they have several kinds, any reason you chose Madagascar over Tahitian or Bourbon? Thanks for the answers and on finding the beans, I'll also be buying some for my brothers birthday.
Jeri
At 10:20 AM,
Matthew said…
Hi Jeri,
Glad you're enjoying the blog. Now that it's three months on, I can't quite remember why I went with the Madagascar beans over Tahitian, but I'm sure the answer lies buried somewhere in this eGullet topic on making vanilla extract. From what I've read (see here) Madagascar vanilla is a type of Bourbon vanilla.
I'd love to hear more about how you make your own Kahlua!
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