You take a sealed canning jar that’s as tall as a whole vanilla bean, pack eighteen to twenty-four vanilla beans in the jar (they’re expensive, so buy them in bulk and wholesale!), fill the jar with vodka (any kind is fine), close the lid tight, and put it on a shelf. Four to six months later, you will have two precious things: the vodka, which will have become really good vanilla extract, and—my favorite part—the beans, which will have softened from all that time soaking in the vodka (View Highlight)