Can I substitute a vanilla bean for vanilla extract?
Of course. Many cooks and especially many cookbook writers want you to slit open a vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds and add them (and often the bean, as well) to the dish you’re making (plucking out the pod at the end). Many discerning palates find this produces a richer, fuller flavor than adding vanilla extract. It’s also exponentially more expensive, and many average-Joe palates can’t tell the difference. heresy that you might as well use imitation vanilla in your cooking as the more expensive natural vanilla extract. They argued that vanilla constitutes such a teensy part of your finished dish — and based on extensive taste tests by their super-discerning palates — that there was no appreciable difference in flavor. Now, people who are concerned that imitation vanilla is generally made from chemically treated by-products of the paper-making industry may still have a slight inclination towards natural vanilla extract. Vanilla extract is made by soaking chopped up vanilla beans
