One of the very best inexpensive gifts that will impress even the biggest foodies is homemade vanilla extract. It's a gift that's meaningful, useful, and oh so delicious — and the process to make it ...

Vanilla extract is so easy, so cost-effective and so satisfying, you might decide you’ll never again shell out your hard-earned money for the pre-made stuff in a tiny vial. Instead, make extract in ...

It was during a recent class on holiday cooking that the subject of vanilla extract came up. One of the items I made was a trendy salted caramel sauce flavored with homemade vanilla. Well, there was ...

Vanilla extract is usually made by steeping vanilla beans in alcohol for weeks and weeks and weeks. But the Instant Pot laughs in the face of linear time, and with it, you can make vanilla extract in ...

Claire is Lifehacker's Senior Food Editor. She has a B.S. in chemistry, a decade of food journalism experience, and a deep love for mayonnaise and MSG. Plunking a scraped and spent vanilla bean into ...