Vanilla caviar: what it is, how to extract it

In short: vanilla caviar is the black seeds and the oily pulp held inside the bean. You split the bean lengthwise, scrape the inside with the back of the blade, dose according to the preparation, and above all you keep the emptied bean: it still carries a large share of the fragrance.

1. What we call caviar, and what it is not

The word comes from kitchens, not from the plantation. At home, in the SAVA region in the north-east of Madagascar, we simply talk about the seeds. What the pastry chef calls caviar is the inside of the Vanilla planifolia bean: thousands of tiny seeds, held in a dark, oily pulp that binds them together.

It is neither an extract, nor a powder, nor a flavouring. It is the raw matter of the bean, taken out as it is. And it must be said straight away, because most books forget it: the caviar does not hold all the flavour. The walls of the bean, that casing you are about to throw away, carry a significant share of the aromas, the ones released slowly with heat. The caviar brings the immediate intensity and the visible black specks; the bean brings the length on the palate. The right practice is therefore not to choose between the two, but to use both.

2. Choose the bean before picking up the knife

An oily, supple bean lets itself be split without tearing, and its caviar comes out as a paste. A dried-out bean opens in splinters and gives a grey powder that no longer disperses. The test is done by hand: the bean should be able to wrap around a finger without breaking.

Size determines quantity. Our four formats run from S, 10 to 12 cm, to XL, 19 to 20 cm, by way of M, 13 to 15 cm, and L, 16 to 18 cm. On our Bourbon vanilla beans, those are average weights of 3 g for an S, 4 g for an M, 5 g for an L and 6 g for an XL. In other words, an XL weighs twice an S and carries roughly twice as many seeds, at equal variety and harvest. When the caviar needs to show in a cream, take L or XL. When the bean is going into an infusion or a rum, an S is enough and costs less per bean.

A word on the white bloom that sometimes appears on the surface: it is crystallised vanillin, a sign of aromatic richness, never mould. The subject is covered in detail in our guide choosing your Bourbon vanilla well.

3. Splitting: one movement, the bean lying flat

Lay the bean flat on the board, never in your hand. Hold one end between two fingers. With the tip of a paring knife, score the skin along the full length, from one end to the other. The aim is not to cut the bean into two pieces, but to open it like a book: the lower part stays whole and acts as a channel while you scrape.

A fine, short blade does the job better than a large chef's knife, which crushes. If the bean resists, it is too dry: ten minutes over a pan of simmering water, or a bath in the recipe's warm milk, and it becomes supple again. Then part the two halves with your fingertips: the inside should look glossy and dark, never powdery.

4. Scraping: the back of the blade, never the edge

This is where almost everyone goes wrong. You scrape with the back of the knife, the side opposite the cutting edge, or with a small teaspoon. The edge of the blade cuts the skin, tears off pieces of casing and leaves half the caviar stuck at the bottom.

The movement starts from the narrower end and runs down to the other, pressing evenly, flat. Make two passes: the first brings out most of it, the second goes after what is left in the folds. The caviar gathers on the back of the blade in a small black mass that holds together on its own.

Do not let it wait. Caviar is oily: poured on its own into a cold liquid, it forms clumps that no longer disperse. Mix it straight away with a spoonful of the sugar, butter or cream from your recipe, crush it against the side of the bowl, then fold the whole into the mix. It is the only way to get black specks spread throughout rather than three clumps at the bottom of the mould.

5. Dosing without waste

Our guidelines, the ones we give on our product pages, apply to beans that have been split and scraped, with both halves left to infuse in the liquid:

• Creams, custards, ice creams: 2 to 4 beans per litre.
• Drinks and infusions: 1 to 2 beans per litre.
• Spiced rum (rhum arrangé): 3 to 5 beans per litre.

For an infusion, allow 15 to 30 minutes in a hot liquid taken off the heat, lid on. Beyond that, little more is extracted and there is a risk of bitterness if the liquid boils. The caviar, for its part, goes into the preparation from the start and needs no resting time.

6. The emptied bean is not thrown away

After scraping, you are left with two strips of skin that still hold a great deal of fragrance. Rinse them only if they have soaked in a fatty liquid, and dry them on a tea towel. Five uses that work:

• Vanilla sugar. One emptied bean buried in 250 g of sugar, in a sealed jar, for two weeks. The sugar can be topped up, and the bean can serve twice.
• Vanilla salt. The same principle with fine salt, for shellfish, foie gras and roast poultry.
• Rum or syrup. Emptied beans count towards the dosage of a spiced rum, at 3 to 5 per litre.
• Homemade vanilla powder. Air-dry the skins for several days, until they snap cleanly, then blend them finely. This powder flavours biscuit doughs.
• Infusion. An already-scraped skin still gives an honest vanilla milk for a rice pudding.

In every case, store at room temperature, away from light, in a closed container. Never in the refrigerator: cold and humidity make vanilla go mouldy. The details are in our guide storage and preparation.

7. Fresh caviar or caviar in a jar

Scraping it yourself remains the best way to work with vanilla: you see what you are buying, and you keep the bean. But the gesture takes time, and it does not hold up when fifty beans have to be opened per service.

It is for those cases that we prepare a vanilla caviar in a 20 g jar, extracted from our own beans and packed in airtight glass. It is dosed by the spoon, needs neither knife nor infusion, and gives the same black specks. It does not replace the bean when you are after length on the palate; it replaces the time you do not have. Volume needs are handled from our professionals page.

Three questions we are asked

How much caviar is in one bean? It depends on the size and the moisture of the bean, and it varies too much to state a reliable weight. The useful benchmark is the size: at equal harvest, an XL of 19 to 20 cm gives roughly twice as many seeds as an S of 10 to 12 cm.

My caviar forms lumps in the cream, why? It was poured on its own into a cold liquid. The pulp is oily and gathers together. Mix it first with the sugar or the fat from the recipe, crushing it against the side of the bowl, before folding it in.

Should I wash the bean before splitting it? No. Water removes part of the surface oils and re-wets a bean that took months to dry. Wipe it with a dry cloth if need be, nothing more.

Other guides on vanilla and the spices of Madagascar are gathered in our wiki.