One ingredient that appears in quite a few recipes is "vanilla extract". How do we make a liquid from vanilla beans?
It's actually very simple - grind up the vanilla bean, cover with alcohol (ethanol if you want to be technical), let it stand for a period of time and the essential oil dissolves in the alcohol. Run the liquid through a filter to remove the solids.
Just a note: growth of the vanilla bean is extremely labor intensive, so the price of real vanilla extract fluctuates as the world market adjusts to shortages caused by weather, disease and political turmoil. Vanillin is the primary compound extracted from the bean and can be synthesized far more cheaply than the beans can be grown. It is very difficult to discern whether "real" or synthetic vanillin has been used in most baking applications, so commercial bakers usually go the less expensive route. French Vanilla ice cream is most common exception, since many of the recipes call for the beans themselves.
It goes without saying that we prefer the real thing.
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