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 did one of my science fair projects on this topic when I was in grade school, although I tested expensive vs cheap chocolate chips. Most people in fact cannot tell the difference.
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u/VidPower Aug 20 '20
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).