All about vanilla, how to use it in baking and cooking, and a dessert recipe idea
Why is vanilla so expensive and how should I use it in the kitchen? Your questions answered, plus an indulgent recipe for meringues
I bake a lot, which means I go through a lot of vanilla beans. For some preparations, I use only the seeds – I split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the tiny seeds with the dull side of a paring knife; for others, I infuse both the seeds and the scraped-out pod in hot liquid.
Vanilla beans come from a special type of orchid plant, the flower of which has to be pollinated by hand on the one day that it blooms. The fresh, green pods are cured in a laborious process that takes several months, and then they are aged, resulting in the dark brown, wrinkled beans we use as a spice.
Because the pods take so long to process, vanilla is very expensive, especially if you buy them individually in supermarkets. I occasionally buy them by the pound online and share them with friends.
It is only logical that you would want to get the most out of the scraped-out pod, which, even without its seeds, still has a lot of flavour and fragrance.
If you have simmered the pod in liquid, rinse it thoroughly, then let it dry until brittle.
Vanilla extract
The most obvious thing to do with it is to make vanilla extract. Put several clean, dry pods in a sterilised bottle and cover them with high-proof alcohol, such as vodka, rum, cognac or brandy. It doesn’t have to be super-expensive alcohol, but it should be drinkable on its own. Put the bottle away for a couple of months to mature.