My Vanilla Smells Like Booze!

I decided to make my own vanilla extract, after reading about others making their own and how wonderful it was. I wrote about it here.

During the time my vanilla extract has been “brewing”, I would be sure and give it the occasional shake and every once in a while I would open the jar and take a sniff.

Yeck! It always smelled like booze. Hubby says it smells chocolaty, but all I smell is booze.

It had been brewing for 3 months when I was making jam, so I decided to add some to one batch of cherry jam. So, it became Cherry –Vanilla Jam. I think it tastes great, but it does not taste vanilla-y to me. Hubby says it tastes like cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. So, HE can taste the vanilla.

The jam smells like cherries and booze. I know the booze burned off when boiling the jam, so I finally realized that the Bourbon Madagascar Vanilla Beans just smell like booze to me.

But the vanilla extract is really gorgeous and made delicious jam. It looks like this.

I figure it is a good enough strength to start baking with.