Want a great way to re-use a whole vanilla bean?
I often add a vanilla bean to my fruit preserves but I only need the intensely flavorful vanilla bean pod for the first step, when macerating the fruit & sugar mixture.
The vanilla bean is always removed before I ladle preserves into jars, yet the whole vanilla beans always seem to have a lot of life left.
Note: When I want to add extra-vanilla-oomph to my jams I split the vanilla beans open and carefully scrape out all of its tiny seeds; in this scenario, I discard the empty vanilla bean pod after scraping.
So what can you do with a once-used still-intact vanilla bean?
First rinse the vanilla bean well, then set it aside to dry. Once the vanilla bean is dry, you can use it to impart a lovely vanilla essence in your sugar bowl, or stuff it into a bottle of booze.
In this case I used dark rum, and in a week or so...
...Vanilla-infused Rum.
Marvelous in Vanilla-Mint Mojitos!
