In short: vanilla caviar is the black seeds and the oily pulp held inside the bean. You split the bean lengthways, scrape the inside with the back of the blade, measure according to the preparation, and above all you keep the scraped bean: it still carries a large share of the aroma.
Caviar is scraped from a whole bean: take yours from our Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, or buy it ready extracted.
1. What caviar is, and what it is not
The word comes from kitchens, not from the plantation. At home, in the SAVA region of north-eastern Madagascar, we simply call them the seeds. What the pastry chef calls caviar is the inside of the Vanilla planifolia bean: thousands of tiny seeds caught in a dark, oily pulp that binds them together.
It is not an extract, not a powder, not a flavouring. It is the raw material of the bean, taken out just as it is. How the other forms compare in use is set out in our guide caviar, powder or extract. And one thing has to be said straight away, because most books leave it out: the caviar does not hold all the flavour. The walls of the bean, the casing you are about to throw away, carry a significant share of the aroma, the part that is released slowly by heat. 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, it is to use both.
2. Choose the bean before you reach for the knife
A plump, supple bean splits 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 wrap around your finger without breaking.
Size decides the quantity. Our four formats run from S, 10 to 12 cm, up 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, that means 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 as much as an S and carries roughly twice as many seeds, for the same variety and the same harvest. When the caviar has to show in a custard, take L or XL. When the bean is destined for an infusion or a rum, S does the job and costs less each.
A word about 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 our guide choosing your Bourbon vanilla well.
3. Splitting: one movement, the bean 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 whole length, from end to end. The aim is not to cut the bean into two pieces, but to open it like a book: the lower half stays whole and acts as a gutter while you scrape.
A thin, 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 barely simmering water, or a soak in the warm milk from the recipe, and it turns supple again. Then ease the two halves apart with your fingertips: the inside should look glossy and dark, never powdery.
4. Scraping: the back of the blade, never the cutting 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 into the skin, tears off pieces of casing and leaves half the caviar stuck to the bottom.
The movement starts at the narrower end and runs down to the other, pressing evenly and flat. Make two passes: the first brings out the bulk of it, the second goes after what is left in the folds. The caviar builds up on the back of the blade as a small black mass that holds together on its own.
Do not leave it waiting. Caviar is oily: tipped on its own into a cold liquid, it forms clumps that will not 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 everything in. That is the only way to get black specks right through the preparation, rather than three clumps at the bottom of the tin.
5. Quantities, without waste
Our reference points, 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:
- Custards, baked creams, ice creams: 2 to 4 beans per litre.
- Drinks and infusions: 1 to 2 beans per litre.
- Infused rum: 3 to 5 beans per litre.
For infusion, allow 10 to 30 minutes in a hot liquid off the heat, with a lid on. Beyond that, little more is extracted and you risk bitterness if the liquid boils. The caviar itself goes into the preparation from the start and needs no standing time.
6. The scraped bean is not for the bin
After scraping, you are left with two strips of skin that still hold a great deal of aroma. Rinse them only if they have soaked in a fatty liquid, and dry them on a cloth. Five uses that work:
- Vanilla sugar. One scraped bean buried in 250 g of sugar, in a sealed jar, for two weeks. The sugar takes on the aroma, and the bean can serve twice.
- Vanilla salt. The same principle with fine salt, for shellfish, foie gras and roast poultry.
- Rum or syrup. Scraped beans count towards the quantity for an infused rum, at 3 to 5 per litre.
- Homemade vanilla powder. Dry the skins in the open air for several days, until they snap cleanly, then blitz them finely. This powder flavours biscuit doughs beautifully.
- Infusion. An already scraped skin still gives a respectable vanilla milk for a rice pudding.
In every case, store at room temperature, away from light, in a sealed container. Never in the fridge: cold and damp make vanilla go mouldy. The detail is in our guide storage and preparation.
7. Fresh caviar or caviar from 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 job takes time, and it does not hold up when fifty beans have to be opened for one service.
That is what our vanilla caviar in a 20 g jar is for, taken from our own beans and packed in sealed glass. It is measured by the spoon, it needs neither knife nor infusion, and it 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 requirements are handled from our trade page.
Three questions we are asked
How much caviar is there in one bean? It depends on the size and on the moisture of the bean, and it varies far too much for us to state a reliable weight. The useful marker is the size: for the same harvest, an XL of 19 to 20 cm gives roughly twice as many seeds as an S of 10 to 12 cm.
My caviar clumps in the cream, why? It was tipped 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 the bean be washed before splitting? No. Water takes away part of the surface oils and puts moisture back into a bean that took months to dry. Wipe it with a dry cloth if you wish, nothing more.
Our other guides to vanilla and to the spices of Madagascar are gathered in our wiki.
