Vanilla Beans: The Topic

[torakris]

My friend and I split a Penzey's order of spices and I now have 8 vanilla beans.

Because the beans we find in Japan are very expensive and very bad quality, I sort of want to hang on to these as long as possible.

What is the shelf life of vanilla beans and what is the best way to store them?

[Varmint]

Airtight in a cool dark place, but not the refrigerator, according to the Gospel of Sarah Moulton

[Lesley C]

Place the vanilla beans in an airtight container, such as a Mason jar, with about a half inch of white alcohol such as vodka or rum at the bottom. The booze keeps them moist.

[Rachel Perlow]

To get the most out of them, after you have used the pod for flavoring something, like custard, rinse them off dry and whiz up in the food processor with sugar for instant vanilla sugar (sift out any remaining large bits). Or, just store the used beans in sugar for vanilla sugar that takes longer for the flavor to develop and doesn't have any specks.

[torakris]

To get the most out of them, after you have used the pod for flavoring something, like custard, rinse them off dry and whiz up in the food processor with sugar for instant vanilla sugar (sift out any remaining large bits). Or, just store the used beans in sugar for vanilla sugar that takes longer for the flavor to develop and doesn't have any specks.

I have seen cookbooks telling you to store vanilla beans in sugar to make vanilla sugar.

What do you use vanilla sugar for?

And Rachel, how long could you store your vanilla sugar for?

And does anyone know if you can use the vanilla bean that is in the bottle of Penzey's vanilla extract? If I can get it out that is.

[Louisa Chu]

I must say that I am almost embarassed by my riches of vanilla beans. I just brought home another 3 whole pods today - to add to the dozen or so I have already - and that's not even counting the scraped out beans. I scavenge them at school - where most people can't be bothered to put away the ones they haven't used - much less reuse the pods they've scraped out. Savages.

I learned this very good technique from one the chefs the other day. When you split a bean in half, you typically scrape out the seeds with the back of your knife. To get out even more, place the split bean in sugar and use the sugar like a sanding agent and rub it in and get even more of the seeds out.

You can then either place these pods into sugar to flavour the sugar - which again should keep indefinitely in a cool dark place and used as you would regular sugar. You can then later take the pods and dry them in a low oven and blend/food process them and use as dried vanilla.

And I don't know specifically about the Penzey's vanilla but I can't see why you couldn't use that bean as above as well.

Enjoy your beans. They are one of my favourite things in the world.

[NeroW]

I have stored vanilla beans in booze as someone else said with some success. They are scarce around these parts, and sadly I don't often have them left-over. When I do I slit a few of them in two and then put them in a jar with a few big cupfuls of sugar, which I (maybe) let the construction guys use in their coffee at work. Also, I have used vanilla beans in sweet souffles. Warm a whole bean for 20 minutes, covered, with the milk you are using for your souffle.

I scavenge them at school - where most people can't be bothered to put away the ones they haven't used - much less reuse the pods they've scraped out. Savages.

Thanks loufood! I can't wait to start doing that kind of thing at school. What other wealth have you found laying about? This is how I intend to feed myself for the next couple years, so share, share!

Edited January 21, 2003 by NeroW (log)

[Anna N]

I have seen cookbooks telling you to store vanilla beans in sugar to make vanilla sugar.

What do you use vanilla sugar for?

And Rachel, how long could you store your vanilla sugar for?

Anxious for someone to answer these questions. Anyone?

[GC++]

I buy them in 50 units batches.

a. I keep them in an air tight bag (Zipped) in my Deep-freeze - then let them come back to "life" and they shines again.

b. Vanilla sugar is used as vanilla flavored sugar powder (Pâte brisée/sucrée/sablée etc.)

c. You may use it in an alcohol to make your own vanilla jus.

[GC++]

Also very nice:

d. I'm using Vanilla flavored olive-oil - simply put some (used vanilla pods + maybe fresh one) in a bottle of your not too powerful olive oil and that's great for salad-dressing

Q.E.D.

[thelastsupper]

I wouldn't store whole vanilla beans in sugar-- they'd get all dried out. Vanilla sugar keeps as long as sugar does. Though maybe the aroma will begin to fade after awhile if you take out the scraped pods. Just keep tossing 'em in.

[Louisa Chu]

I scavenge them at school - where most people can't be bothered to put away the ones they haven't used - much less reuse the pods they've scraped out. Savages.

Thanks loufood! I can't wait to start doing that kind of thing at school. What other wealth have you found laying about? This is how I intend to feed myself for the next couple years, so share, share!

From pastry alone, I have not only the coveted vanilla beans but of course a staggering supply of leftover doughs in my freezer - standard short, puff, almond, etc. - occasionally ganache, almond cream, mousses, etc. I tend not to take my classmates extras because I quite frankly I don't trust it but if I took theirs as well I could run my own patisserie on the side. We just made the fillings for assorted chocolates yesterday - dipping tomorrow - and I had cups of leftover almond paste/pistachio paste, praline, muscadine. From a demo today I brought home four cups of an incredibly deep, dark rich caramel creme sauce. Had that tonight with ice cream and praline bits.

And cuisine leftovers will need their own thread!

Where are you going to school?

[NeroW]

Cordon Bleu. They say we are not allowed to remove food from the premises. Are you? If so, how do you sneak it out? Do you hide it beneath your hat? I am trying to figure out how I'm going to do this without getting caught.

[Louisa Chu]

Cordon Bleu.  They say we are not allowed to remove food from the premises.  Are you?  If so, how do you sneak it out?  Do you hide it beneath your hat?  I am trying to figure out how I'm going to do this without getting caught. 

Cordon Bleu where?

I'm at CB Paris.

[Louisa Chu]

Not only are we allowed to bring home food but we're issued official "hermetically sealed boxes" - big and small, the latter for sauces. Today I brought home about 2 kilos of chocolates - mostly mine but some of the chef's from demo too.

[NeroW]

I'm at CB Paris.

Ooooh, the real one! I am going to one of the satellites: Chicago. I was wondering if you were at the Paris school . . .

[Louisa Chu]

I'm at CB Paris.

Ooooh, the real one! I am going to one of the satellites: Chicago. I was wondering if you were at the Paris school . . .

Yes, as real as a heart attack.

Where in Chicago - that's where I grew up. And I've heard that culinary schools in the US don't allow students to bring home food. Crazy Americans. What happens to your food? And vanilla beans?

[NeroW]

It's on W. Chestnut, downtown. Do you know where the Tribune bldg. is? It's only a few blocks from there. We can eat all the food we want while we're in the bldg, but none outside. They give all the leftovers to a shelter down the street, though, which is good. How long is the program in Paris? Well, I guess this has not much to do with vanilla beans anymore.

[forever_young_ca]

I am making a special dinner and for the first course I wanted to do "seared scallops with a saffron-vanilla cream" from the Lumiere cookbook.

Basically the recipe calls for a reduced chicken stock/saffron/cream mixture. To the strained reduced mixture the recipe says "add vanilla pulp, bring to a simmer and swirl until the vanilla has been incorporated into the sauce. Remove from heat and add in butter".

My questions are:

!) is vanilla pulp just the exterior of the bean or does it mean the seeds inside?

2) the recipe does not call for straining, so would I not have little bits of vanilla floating in the sauce? The picture shows a very pure looking sauce.

For anyone with this cookbook it is on page 140 & 141.

I want this to be a wonderful dish so any help would be appreciated.

[FoodMan]

vanilla pulp is the inside vanilla bean as far as I know. The picture might not be 100% accurate, maybe it is strained. I would not strain it though becuase I like the little vanilla specks. But hey that's me. good luck.

FM

[mamster]

My guess is that they mean the seeds, and the photo is doctored or doesn't exactly represent the completed recipe. Unless they ask you to puree the vanilla pods at some point, there's nothing else in the vanilla bean that's going to dissolve.

[Suzanne F]

To me, "vanilla pulp" would be the seeds you scrape out of the inside of the bean when you split it open. They are dark but tiny -- almost impossible to strain out, I imagine.

Don't have the book, but FoodMan could be right about the photo. Think how many people make their living as Food Stylists.

[MatthewB]

I'd also vote for the seeds as the described pulp.

My hunch is that the cream sauce is thick enough as to "hide" the seeds. (The seeds aren't really "seedy" anyway.)

[forever_young_ca]

Thanks all for your help. It makes perfect sense that the "pulp" would be the seeds, now that I think about it

Also, the photo probably is edited. The recipe calls for saffron, but the picture in the book does not look "yellow" enough to have saffron in the sauce. Editor's license I guess.

[pastramionrye]

whats the recipe? i have to make a saffron cream sauce but have no reference point really.