All About Homemade Extracts

[Music] hello friends heidi here from rain country god is good all the time and i have yet another video about homemade extracts now i'm going to be trying to cover everything in this particular video such as types of solvents that you can use different options to give you whether it be alcohol free low alcohol or a high proof alcohol and different types of things that you can extract whether it be for homemade medicines or for flavorings so the ones i'll be making today are for flavoring and i'm going to be trying one totally new one and one i've done before but in this one i'll be using my new favorite solvent so let's get started on this and i'm gonna do my best to cover everything i can and hopefully give you all you need to know about homemade extracts but likely i'll forget something so don't be afraid to go ahead and put your questions down below and i will also be linking in the description box videos on how i've made other extracts i'll be showing you in previous videos such as the coffee the chocolate and such and then you can take some of the ideas i'm going to give you here and combine it with the ideas in those videos okay so first let's cover some of the different solvents that you can use now if you're new to extract making that word might sound new to you in reference to extracts the solvent is whatever medium you're going to be using to extract the flavors and the medicinal qualities of the things that you're extracting so one of the things that i like to use is my own homemade wine what i have right here is my homemade apple wine from 2019 from our own apple trees so i pressed out the apple juice first and then took that and fermented it to make an apple wine one that i didn't i don't have out here but a most common one that people like to use is vodka and the reason why people like that one a lot is because it's flavorless and it is a high proof to get the strongest extract now it is not my favorite i used it for years for making my vanilla extract but found other means that i like much better i'll talk about in a little bit you can use other forms of high proof alcohol like back here i have spiced rum yes you can use gin you can use bourbon anything that's alcohol you can use typically if you're talking about 80 proof and above alcohol especially when you're talking about homemade medicines that's going to be called a tincture if it is lower than a 80 proof alcohol then it's going to be an extract basically they're the same tincture just means it's made with a high proof alcohol that's really the only difference as far as name goes so i know that gets confusing so all tinctures are extracts but not all extracts are tinctured such as most of the things you see out here are extracts because they were not made with a high proof alcohol now when you're talking about making an alcohol free form of extract then you can use a food grade glycerin non-gmo i will link to this down below assuming it's still available i get mine from amazon because i can get the best price getting two one gallon jugs for around fifty dollars it might be more than that now but it lasts for a very long time when you're doing an alcohol free one and i do have a video just on that what you're gonna do is you're going to do three parts of your glycerin to one part water and you need that water because the glycerin is very syrupy and so you need to water it down a little bit to make it extract better i tried doing one a vanilla based one using just glycerin and it was just too thick it was not extracting the vanilla the way i would have liked and yes glycerin is safe and is a natural byproduct believe it or not of soap making yet it's naturally sweet so it adds a natural sweet flavor that doesn't raise your glycemic level so it is actually safe for diabetics but if you want to go more natural yet and you like that sweet flavor uh you can look at doing raw honey now i'm going to be talking more about this in a little bit this is part of what my new favorite solvent is but as far as mixing it with water like you do with glycerin honey is a lot thicker than glycerin so you're going to need more water in there and here's my concern is i don't know what the shelf life would be if you did that because i'm thinking the best ratio if you're talking about using it using honey would be to go three parts water and one part honey in which case i would recommend keeping it in the fridge at all times now it could be with the raw honey even with that higher dilution with its natural antibiotic properties in it it might have a very long shelf life i just don't know i haven't tried it yet i plan to do more experimentations using the honey to make an alcohol free version it's very likely you can go like a 50 50 50 honey 50 water and you know get a higher honey ratio in there it will make it very very sweet though but even when you're talking about ground based babies if you're using any kind of alcohol consider the things that you're going to be using it in if you're using it in food in most cases a lot of the alcohol is going to be cooked out and what isn't cooked out is going to be absorbed by whatever food is being eaten and not going to cause any kind of ill effects in that way if you're going to add it to something like cocoa so if you're making a peppermint or cinnamon extract like i'm going to be doing today that might be something that would taste really good in cocoa especially if you're going to be using honey in it well if you heat that enough that's going to help cook out some of that alcohol but the amount you're using is going to be very small so you just gotta work with it a little bit you'll you'll get familiar with what you can and cannot do as far as that goes you can consider cooking it let's say you do an all wine based extract then you can consider actually cooking it into the cocoa and that way cooking out the alcohol as much as you can the concern with using a honey based one is cooking the honey and then taking away the raw the benefits of keeping it raw so there's just a lot of different variables here and each person has to find what works best for them both for flavor for their health reasons and so on now let me talk about some different things that i've done when it comes to making uh different types of extracts now when it comes to my medicinal extract now all i use is plain homemade wine i find it to be just as effective as using a vodka again it's a lot cheaper because well i made it like this here i made for my own homegrown apples so virtually free i know it's all organic and a lot healthier than store bought so this is all i use now for any of my medicinal extracts whether it be my sleep and muscle relaxer my pain and inflammation one you know the three main extracts i i make for medicinal purposes or the antibiotic one i will link down below to the pain and inflammation one and to the antibiotic extract and then here is one this is supposed to be a perpetual vanilla extract that's why i made it in such a big jar it's got a lot of beans in here i actually started this just about a year ago look how dark that is now this one this was definitely an experiment and i decided to go for it even in such a large amount usually i experiment in smaller amounts but this is a three part mixture of glycerin it's it's equal parts glycerin homemade wine and spiced rum though this has turned out pretty good i'll be making some changes as i work through this when i go to add more of my solvent in there i'll be changing it up my previous favorite way of making vanilla extract was using a 50 50 part so ratio of one to one of the uh non-gmo food grade glycerin and the spiced rum now the spice the vanilla extract is the only thing i use the spice rum in because it just really brings out that vanilla flavor i have found it to be the best i like it far better than vodka and even better than just using my homemade wine even though i like my homemade wine and all the rest for the vanilla the spice from just adds the best flavor so uh the this one that like i said is a three part mixture but now my next venture for the vanilla now that i've been switching over to the raw honeymoor is doing maybe a 50 50 or three parts to one part of the honey with the rum and leaving the wine out of this as long as i'm only using the rum in one of my extracts i'm not i i don't feel bad about that because everything else i use the homemade wine and anyway i think that'll be a really good blend there so one part honey to three parts rum so when i go to add more liquid to this as is needed which will be a long long time for now because i have several other bottles of extract i'm still working through and then i'll start filling those from here then what i'll do to keep this going is to do the the spiced rum and honey only i really think i'm going to like that best of all when it comes to the vanilla i'm going to show you some examples of other flavors that i've done and that would be and this is funny because it looks a lot darker but that's just because the dried lemons when you dehydrate the slices and put them in storage they they'll keep their flavor and be great but they'll turn really dark in color but this made an excellent extract so this is my most recent batch of lemon extract here i have orange this is chocolate i've got three here that were all made from freeze-dried fruits that i got from mother earth products so i have the sour cherry the raspberry and the pineapple these were all made with a blend of the glycerin and wine but again from now on i'll be using the honey and wine instead and then here's a chocolate and a coffee so coffee cracked coffee beans and cacao nibs were used to make these one of the questions i get quite a bit on extracts is shelf life now it is said that the glycerin water extract the alcohol-free one can last up to a year i've seen it say four months and i've seen it say up to a year i believe they can last much longer than that that's my personal thoughts but if you're in doubt just try to use it up at least within that year and so only make as much as you think you need when it comes to anything that's alcohol free even if you're talking about using the honey based one now when you're talking about a high proof alcohol like rum or gin or bourbon or vodka those are indefinite if that's all you're using those are indefinite when it comes to a wine base extract or wine and honey like i like to do now i personally think they are also indefinite because the honey honey does not spoil and wine the worst thing that happens to that is it can turn to vinegar if it's exposed to oxygen so other than that it doesn't spoil so in my personal opinion it should last indefinitely on the shelf without refrigeration again i would recommend if you're trying to do a honey and water blend i would say keep it in the fridge now when it comes to the things you're gonna extract most of the time what you're looking at for making the best extract is something in a dried form whether it be freeze-dried like the pineapple and raspberries i have here and the extract i showed you back there or even the oranges and the lemons that i dehydrated myself other things that are in a dry form like the coffee beans and the cacao nibs or your cinnamon sticks or even cloves these are going to make the best extracts but you don't have to limit yourself to that when we're talking a mint extract i find that one i actually have never tried it using dried mints i just believe that the one to get the best flavor is coming from the fresh mint itself this peppermint extract i have here is part of the reason it's got that color is because of the homemade wine used in it that was made with my own fresh mint and that's what i'm going to do today and i'm going to put a lot in there because you got to consider it's not dehydrated so there's a lot of water in there and that's going to add something to it there so i'm just going to shove stuff that full of peppermint you can do less if you want but i love a strong strong flavor the same goes when i'm making my tea and then i'm going to make a smaller batch of the cinnamon but let's try to get it kind of strong so i'm going to go ahead and put three this is the ceylon cinnamon sticks i've never actually made cinnamon extract yet so this is a new one for me and yes it's going to be sweet because of what i'm using now if you don't want any sweetness then don't use glycerin there honey stick with either any of your alcohols whether it be your homemade wine your vodka your rum or whatever i'm gonna go ahead and i don't think i'll need this much but i'm gonna make a total of two cups of my solvent so what i'm gonna need i've got uh the glory bees raw blackberry honey which is my very favorite when it comes to flavor unless of course i can get a good local honey those ones are just so awesome but i can't always find those okay there we go so now i got a half cup of honey in there so now i'm going to fill it up the rest of the way with my homemade apple wine and any wine you've got it can be a cheap store-bought wine it can be your homemade whatever wine i don't recommend heating this when you're extracting it's best to try to keep your alcohol fully alcohol and your honey fully raw you can just leave this at room temperature and just keep stirring it it will dissolve on its own so i'm going to be back once this is fully dissolved all right this is mostly dissolved i just have little tiny pieces in there that aren't fully dissolved but i'm not worried about those because they will finish dissolving in the extraction process so let's go ahead and fill up our jars as long as it's uh evenly blended that's what matters to me now i might have figured this out just right almost just right look at that so what i'm gonna do uh there was a little bit of extra honey at the bottom that ended up in this one so i'll just top that one off with a little bit more wine and then what you want to do is put your lid on you want a tight fitting lid and shake it real well and you're going to do this for at least a few days and so i like to leave my extracts out for a few days before i put them back in storage to finish their extracting process so that reminds me to shake it it's good to shake it every day or at least uh maybe once a week or so during the extraction process but i never remember to do that i'm terrible once it gets put out of eyesight it's like out of sight out of mind so anyway because of the fact that you're going to be shaking this this is why i'm not too concerned about the honey not being fully dissolved in there and this is also why i like using a regular canning lid is that when you're shaking it you're not going to have it leaking all over the place this one keeps leaking on me because i think there might be something wrong with the lid but anyway a good tight fitting lid is good for that all right then the next step is to simply let it extract and i like to give mine at least two months so as you can see i did put the dates on here and yes today is actually july third that i'm shooting this video it might be almost august by the time you see it and so that way i'll know for sure when it's ready i think at least two months is the best now certain herbs and spices and whatever it is that you're extracting can be ready in maybe only a month it just depends on what it is but the thing is it's not going to hurt it any to allow it to sit there just like the vanilla i still got those beans in there i haven't touched it yet that's been in there for a year and it's still good there's nothing wrong with it in fact i tasted it before i started this video and boy it's good it's really good but anyway then when you're ready to start using it simply strain your herbs and whatever it is out of the extract out of the solvent if it's something like vanilla beans or coffee beans or or cacao beans i just leave them in there you don't even have to strain them out if you don't want to just start using it but some of the things that have finer bits and pieces in it you may want to strain it out now i did go ahead and you know as you can see here with the orange and the lemon i did strain it out of the fruit that way i could fit them better into the bottles like this now uh whatever bottles you choose to use i got a couple of these at our local store years ago the other little swing top bottles like this you can find on amazon and other places but the cheapest way to go is if you get maple syrup in uh bottles like these simply recycle these these are perfect for putting extracts in especially when you're doing something like this where i made 16 ounces at a time so that's a really cheap way to go if you're already buying your maple syrup enough so i think i covered everything i should have probably wrote some notes down i hope i didn't forget anything but i know i'm probably going to get a lot of people asking me can i extract this can i extract that my answer to you will be if it's edible yes you can extract it generally speaking and don't forget that i'll be linking down below videos to some other extract making whether it be medicinal ones or the flavored ones and i also have a video about the differences between extracts and tinctures where i think i go a little bit more in depth that i'll link to down below as well so you can check those out again take some of these ideas and create something that suits you what i'm doing here with the honey and the homemade wine might not be to your liking but you might try it if you're if you're gonna try it you could even try doing an extract even smaller than what i've got here this is eight ounces you can get an even smaller jar do like the little four ounce jars or bottle and then try doing an extract in there so you're just making small amounts even consider doing several of the same extract like maybe you've got one cinnamon extract that's done like i did here with the honey and wine then you've got another one that's done only with vodka and another one is done only with spiced rum and another one that's done with glycerin and water you know the alcohol-free one or whatever it is that you can think of to use as your solvent so you can compare them all side-by-side for me it's just been a years long process of trying different things because it does take a while to you gotta let them extract for at least a couple months and then taste them and this is how i found what i like best and i'm always trying to find the cheapest and healthiest way to do it and that's why i came up with the honey and the homemade wine which is pretty much free so and i know it's organic and it came from our own garden oh i was gonna say too the other things i'll be linking down below i have a whole series on wine making that includes mead making i've got two meads back there that are done fermenting i'm just letting them sit and let the sediment set to the bottom and i'm going to be racking them here soon so both of those meads a mead is simply a honey wine so i have a video on how to make your own honey wine and these are flavored ones so i have a raspberry and then the other one is mango pineapple keep in mind i don't drink i make the wine for many other purposes and another video i'll go ahead and link to down below is the one i did on the many uses for homemade wine especially if you're like me and you don't drink and so you think why would i want to make homemade wine if i don't drink because it has many uses okay well i hope you enjoyed this video on making your own homemade extracts and this gives you some various different ideas and options that you can try in your extract making all right well thanks for watching take care and god bless [Music] you

Channel: Rain Country

Views: 32,180

Keywords: traditional, old-ways, Health, Garden, Frugal, Homesteading, Self-Sustainability, Cooking, DIY, Homemade, natural-living, herbs

Id: AlC4hUebO-Y

Length: 20min 55sec (1255 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020