We have just successfully made a non-vanilla-bean vanilla extract! We have another non-vanilla-bean-extract experiment going now as well with a different plant. That plant, according to Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada by Lonepine Publishing, is still used today to lend a vanilla flavour to sweets and such, so when we were handed a bunch of it, we set about to see if we can. The book’s reference is to Sweetgrass! I’ll be checking that experiment on July 30th, 6 weeks from today. (see end of post for an update on this one as well)
Today’s celebration however, is what happened when I put a handful of dry and a handful of fresh Arrowleaf Balsamroot flowers into separate jars, and poured a 3-1 ratio of vegetable glycerin and water into each jar, then let it sit for 6 weeks. Today was the Big Reveal!
I set out two bowls and poured the contents into each bowl, setting the jar near the bowl for identification.
Next, I set out a plate, pulled out three spoons, and made three dots of liquid on the plate, setting each spoon down near it’s dot.
Now it was time to test! I took a finger tip and dipped it into the vanilla extract, the real stuff, not the artificial stuff I have up in the cupboard (that believe it or not, is NOT made with propylene glycol!!! YAAAA) and used the real stuff as my control for flavour on the tongue. My daughter was present to observe, as well as to test, so we could compare notes.
I then took a different finger to test in the fresh flower dot first. It tasted very similar to the real vanilla.
A third finger in the dot from the dried flowers tasted quite strong and a bitter note that would require a sweetener to tone down. Honestly, in the past I thought that way of real vanilla and the artificial stuff, so the need for sweetener didn’t phase me.
Ashley decided to do a milk test next and set out three shot glasses. As we don’t drink in our house, shot glasses are typically used to deliver liquid medication, but in today’s case, they’d be used to test the extracts in a milk setting where you have the sweetness provided by the lactose. My smallest measuring spoons are 1/8th of a teaspoon. Typically you might add a half teaspoon of vanilla to a cup of milk, so our tests today were a little stronger than that. We got out three 1/8th teaspoons, set a shot glass beside each container, poured in milk, then added a measure of each extract.
The extract from the fresh arrowleaf balsamroot flower darn near was one for one with the vanilla extract!
The extract from the dried flower turned out to be double strength to the vanilla even in the milk, but otherwise, in the milk, there was enough sweetness to cause the flavour to be very much like that of real vanilla!
So how did I do this?
I found information on making tinctures using glycerine as opposed to alcohol. The general rule of thumb is 60% glycerin to 40% water. I had read this slightly wrong, and did the same steps for both fresh and dried: 2/3rds full for fresh and half full for dry plant matter, then the 60/40 ratio of liquid for both. Some how-to’s change the ratio if you are using dry or fresh so that the fresh instructions say to use 70% to 100% glycerine. I did 60/40 for both jars. Then the instructions say to let them sit for 4 to 6 weeks in a dark place, shaking at least once every day. Some days I forgot, but most days the jars got a good shaking each day.
I later realized I’d gotten my instructions partially from a how-to that teaches how to use the stove to make your glycerite quickly as opposed to the more common long, non-heated method. But I’d still done the long non-heated method. I found out this slight misreading just a few days ago. But with enough how-to’s out there saying similar things regardless, the mistake wasn’t one to quibble over. But suffice to say I now have two pdf’ed methods of making glycerine tinctures. Seeing as my tests today were successful, This is my how-to:
Making Arrowleaf Balsamroot Flower Glycerine Tincture (dried or fresh)
Ingredients:
- 500ml bottle or larger of Glycerine (depending on size of jars you intend to use, I used pint jars with mason lids)
- Enough fresh flower to fill jar 2/3rds full
- or, Enough dried flower to fill jar half full.
- Water.
Instructions:
- Pack flower into jar to the designated fill line as per ingredient list above.
- Figure out your measures so that you do 3 of glycerine and one of water of the same measurement until the jar is full. ie: 3 quarter cups of glycerine to one quarter cup of water.
- Cap the jar and place it in a dark place, a cool place if you can swing it, although with instructions found for doing it on the stove, heat won’t affect the outcome if encountered.
- Wait 4 to 6 weeks. I did the full 6 week wait.
If you want to skip the 6 week wait, do the following:
Quick Method:
- Place a pot on the stove element. Put canning rings in the bottom of the pot, and place jar with it’s contents onto the rings, then fill the water half way up the sides of the jar.
- Bring the water to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer for 20 – 40 minutes.
- Alternatively, add water to the pot, then place a smaller pot that rests on the first one on top, and add your herb and glycerine to this second pot.
- Bring the water to a slow boil (such as having the heat at medium), and simmer for 2 hours, checking every half hour to top up the water in the larger pot. Stir the herb occasionally to be sure it is covered in the glycerine/water mixture.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool to where you can handle it with your bare hands, then strain the plant matter away from the tincture. Use a coffee filter or doubled cheese cloth for this step. I made “cheese cloth” from old curtain sheers and they’ve lasted me years!
EDIT November 15, 2024
I decided to do more digging around on the idea of a quick glycerite method, because 20 to 40 minutes didn’t make sense to me, and I was suddenly getting people demanding that I have this available on our craft fair tables!
What I found revealed a fair bit of disparity in methods used, length of time, and understandings of longevity. A few understandings were largely held across the board:
- Whether long or short method, glycerites generally have a shelf life of up to 2 years if the 60 glycerine to 40 water ratio is used.
- The higher the glycerine content, the longer the shelf life as glycerine is self-preserving.
- Storing in dark bottles in a cool, dark space extends the shelf life even further.
Otherwise, the various “heat” methods as many call them, include double boilers, slow cookers, instant pots, tall-walled pots, water-baths, etc. Length of time ranges from 15 minutes in a full boil for one guy making a mint leaf glycerite in his double boiler, to 3 days in a crockpot or instant pot set to low. Many closed up the jar before inserting into water on top of a cloth or canning rings. While many claimed this was for sanitation reasons, considering it was all stove-top, I had to ask myself why. Eventually I ran across a lady who did NOT add the lid to her jar, because she didn’t have any pets or kids running around potentially upsetting the setup. While I have a cat in the house, he does not jump up on counters, (possibly because of hips that bother him on occasion, making the jump to a bed or couch surface a challenge) so no need to cover the heating glycerite.
My second observation was that unlike making quick oil infusions, it doesn’t seem to matter that anyone places their open or closed jar right IN the boiling/simmering water! Double-boilers were used in various examples I found, however.
The last observation I made, and that suddenly made all the wildly disparate understandings and methods make sense, was that glycerite making techniques are not taught in herbal colleges, at least not the one I went to, nor colleges others went to who taught themselves how to do it.
Wanting to make a “quick” glycerite that made sense, I chose a 2 hour recipe to follow, and when the 15min mark, 20 min mark and 40 min marks all passed and I didn’t have the colour of liquid I was looking for, I was glad to have made the longer choice! It would be a full hour before the flower heads took on the colour I was used to seeking a week after beginning the slow method! Another half hour and the liquid was the colour I was used to seeing roughly a week before straining the slow method. So by the time 2 hours was up, I had what I was looking for and was able to strain and bottle it. I have now added this set of steps to the quick method mentioned above.
end edit
Whether the quick or slow method, be sure to tightly cap the jar, label, and store in a dark place for maximum longevity.
This tincture will be used for cooking and baking. But if you are using such a tincture medicinally, some sources say to double the dose for a glycerite versus an alcohol tincture of the same plant. This info is added if you want to use the above instructions for herbs you want medicinal tinctures from. Arrowleaf Balsamroot does have medicinal qualities as well as nutritional, so this tincture can be used medicinally as well as culinary if you so choose.
Due to the cost of buying vegetable glycerine, we are now looking into what is required to make it. Short, most common answer: safety equipment, cooking implements you won’t use for anything else ever again, and a well-ventilated area to cook in! Doesn’t sound like a safe endeavour to me, but others out there do it, and after giving all their safety caveats, claim it’s quite easy. There are instructions for tallow glycerine and vegetable glycerine. Ashley has found how-to’s for making lye from ash, so it’s thoroughly possible to find yourself away from “the system” and able to make your own glycerine, and by extension, your own soap, as soap is a byproduct of the effort. All you’d need in the wild to finish the effort, is a decent amount of salt. If we get brave enough to try this, we won’t have to buy it again. Prices where we live are not cheap. Otherwise, this is a good replacement for alcohol.
UPDATE ON THE SWEETGRASS EXPERIMENT! August 4, 2024
So it’s a few days past July 30th, but I finally go around to straining and testing the sweetgrass glycerine extract! The flavour is practically one for one to real vanilla extract made from the vanilla bean! Cool! The slight difference? It’s sweeter, which may either be due to glycerine being sweeter than alcohol, or due to why sweetgrass has it’s name, or both. But it has a sweeter and slightly sharper flavour, otherwise, almost nondistinguishable from the commercially-made vanilla extract. Now I have two jars of this particular version as well! We won’t be buying vanilla extract anymore! Not for a LOOOOONG while!
