Why remove the seeds from vanilla beans for extract?

[visionviper]

I enjoy going overboard on many things and one of them is making my own vanilla extract. Some recipes I find says to split the beans to remove the caviar from the beans. This, of course, is quite labor intensive since I have to find my way through 1/2lb of vanilla beans. Is there any reason for this? Is it really a required step?

Other recipes have various methods of preparing the beans. Some have you simply split the beans others nothing at at all. Will I be find if I just cut them up and throw them in my bottles?

 

[sparrowgrass]

All I do is cut them into about 1 inch lengths and put them into the bottles. My extract is the best I have ever tried.

Extraction probably happens faster as more surface is exposed, but I have more time to wait than I have time to fiddle with a pound of beans.

 

[Andy M.]

...Some recipes I find says to split the beans to remove the caviar from the beans....

Only if you're going to put the caviar into the bottle with the rest of the bean.

I don't know if doing this is necessary. It would probably make the extraction a little quicker.

I would consider splitting them in half.

 

[Dawgluver]

As I recall, the Penzeys vanilla I emptied had 1 to 2" chunks of bean. I split some of my new beans, leaving the bean halves together and intact, and am steeping in vodka.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I split one or two beans the long way and put them in a 750ml bottle of vodka or light rum. I do this in January or February and begin using it the following November. I shake the bottle when I think of it and the seeds eventually come away from the pods. I like the light rum better than vodka, it really depends on what gift bottle I have on hand. In my house a bottle lasts a couple of years and it gets better as it ages.

 

[bakechef]

I cut the beans so that they will lay in the bottom of the bottle better( and not stick up when the bottle runs down a bit), and split, but I don't scrape out the seeds, they will find their way out as it steeps.

I use 6-8 (usually 8) beans per cup of vodka. So a 750 ml. bottle gets a bit poured off to make 3 cups (about 1/4 cup) and 24 beans.

 

[Kylie1969]

I enjoy going overboard on many things and one of them is making my own vanilla extract. Some recipes I find says to split the beans to remove the caviar from the beans. This, of course, is quite labor intensive since I have to find my way through 1/2lb of vanilla beans. Is there any reason for this? Is it really a required step?

Other recipes have various methods of preparing the beans. Some have you simply split the beans others nothing at at all. Will I be find if I just cut them up and throw them in my bottles?

It is the strongest section, more intense flavour