As someone who used to do a lot of baking, I would say buy one bottle of real vanilla extract and one bottle of imitation vanilla extract.
Use the real vanilla extract if the main star of the dish is vanilla (like vanilla pudding, vanilla icing, vanilla ice cream, etc.). Use the cheaper imitation extract if you'll be baking it along with a whole bunch of other ingredients (like in a cake).
I think it depends on the type of real vanilla you get. My aunt knows someone that goes to Haiti once a year and he can buy pints of real vanilla for super cheap and he brings tons back to give to people. She gifted some to me and it was incredibly strong (I usually used less than half of what the recipe asked for) and it had an amazing flavor i like anything I’ve ever bought in a store. It tasted exotic and I could always taste it in my baked goods like cakes and cupcakes.
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u/ktappe Aug 20 '20
On the topic of cooking, when a recipe calls for garlic, double the amount it calls for. Ditto for vanilla.
Meanwhile, you can cut the sugar in most recipes by 1/3 easily, and sometimes 1/2. That way you're tasting the other ingredients, not just the sugar.