Those expensive pods will bring their heavenly aroma to syrups, compotes, baked goods, desserts – and even your underwear drawer

Can you do anything with vanilla pods once you’ve scraped out the seeds? They’re so expensive.
Jo, by email
“I put them in my knicker drawer,” says Sarah Lemanski, owner of Nova Bakehouse in Leeds. “They scent it nicely, that’s for sure.” But, culinarily speaking, and beyond custards and the like, Lemanski often uses them in vanilla syrup: “Chop the pod quite small, then dry-toast it with some of the sugar for the syrup – I use a 2:1 sugar-to-water ratio – to give it body.” The Guardian’s own Benjamina Ebuehi is very much in agreement, and keeps a stash of said vanilla syrup in the fridge to fuel her matcha habit: “I can’t be paying £6 for one every day.” (It would work well in iced coffee, too.)

“Even when you’ve scraped out as much as you can from a pod, there are always some seeds left inside,” Ebuehi says, so there’s still so much flavour to be had in there. Perhaps the easiest way to keep the love alive is by sticking a spent pod in a fruit compote: “Once that’s cooled, get it in the fridge, but leave the pod in there, so it continues to seep out that flavour.” You could apply a similar tactic to jam.

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