Split the beans and cut into inch lengths. Put them to soak in the brandy for three days. Boil the sugar and water until it is a thick, clear syrup. Skim well, and strain the vanilla brandy into it. Shake, and pour into small bottles.
I have called this a liqueur, but it is so highly flavored as to be unfit for drinking, except as it is used in small quantities in effervescing beverages. But it imparts an exquisite flavor to creams, whips, cakes, etc., that cannot be obtained from the distilled extracts.
The receipt was given to me as a modern prize by an expert in cookery, but in reading it over there floated to me a delicious breath from a certain storeroom, the treasures of which to my childish imagination rivalled those of the “island of delights,” where the streams were curaçoa and capillaire, and the rocks loaf sugar. Led by this wandering zephyr of early association, I did not cease my rummaging until I unearthed the same receipt from an old cookery-book bequeathed to me by my mother.
FLAVORING EXTRACTS.
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Lemon.
The peel of 6 lemons.
1 quart white whiskey or brandy.
Cut the rind into thin shreds; half fill three or four wide-mouthed bottles with it, and pour the spirits upon it. Cork tightly, and shake now and then for the first month. This will keep for years, and be better for age. It has this advantage over the distilled extract sold in the stores—country-stores especially, lemon extract being especially liable to spoil if kept for a few months, and tasting, when a little old, unfortunately like spirits of turpentine.