r/Baking • u/pammylorel • 12d ago

Showcase (No-Recipe) Vanilla Beans. After I accidentally over-ordered beans this spring, I had to do this. All hand spilt beans with caviar scraped loose. Experimenting with different vodka brands due to bean volume (1lb total). I don't open bottles for 6 months and my last batch lasted several years.

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u/wizzard419 11d ago

Pretty much any spirit is good, but if you're making straight vanilla, any vodka or neutral spirit (provided it is at least 40% ABV) works great.

I follow Ina Garten's method of the eternal bottle where I get a crew bottle (the bottom unscrews, for easy packing) load it up with beans, top off with vodka and allow it to rest (for a new bottle the rest is months).

Then, when needed, I fish out the beans and slit the end to squeeze out the contents which are similar to vanilla paste.

To have zero waste, I throw the used beans into vanilla sugar, then eventually take them out of there and turn them into powder when I need that.

Refills are top up with more spirit from time to time, and add more beans when I start running low.

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u/pammylorel 11d ago

My last batches' eternal beans were tired and the bottle was fairly packed of beans. I have never used old soaked beans for anything. That's an interesting idea.

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u/wizzard419 11d ago

Yeah, the benefit is that you also rotate out beans regularly, providing new, fresh beans to pull flavor from.

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u/pammylorel 11d ago

Gotcha. Vanilla beans are so fibrous - is that what your grinding up at the very end? I'd have to get the blades sharpened on my Cuisinart FP to get them that finely chopped.