Choose a glass bottle which is tall enough for the vanilla beans to stand comfortably, and ideally with a wide neck so that you can easily add and remove the vanilla beans.

Wash the bottle (and lid, if necessary) in hot, soapy water.

Place the bottle (and lid, if necessary) on an oven tray.

Place the tray into a preheated oven at 180°C/356°F (without fan) for 15 minutes.

Leave the bottle to cool in the oven.

Alternatively, a bottle cleaned and dried in the dishwasher can also be considered sterilised.

Use a sharp knife to split open a vanilla bean by cutting it through the centre, length-wise.

Use the blade of the knife to scrape out the seeds from both sides of the split vanilla bean.

Transfer the seeds to the edge of the vanilla bean, so that the seeds adhere to the outside of the vanilla bean. This makes it cleaner and easier to transfer the seeds to the glass jar.

Place the vanilla bean, with the scraped seeds, into the clean glass jar.

Repeat the above steps with the remaining vanilla beans.

Fill up the bottle with vodka until the vanilla beans are completely submerged.

Use a long chopstick or similar to give everything a good stir.

Cover the bottle with a tight-fitting lid.

Place the bottle somewhere cool and dark.

About once a week, give everything a good stir.

After 3 months, your Homemade Vanilla Extract might be ready to use, depending on how full-flavoured you need it to be.

I recommend waiting 6-9 months before using your Homemade Vanilla Extract.

Once you have used about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottle, simply top up with more vodka.

You can add fresh vanilla beans (split and de-seeded) to the bottle any time to improve the colour and flavour.

If you have used more than 1/3 or 1/2 of the bottle, top up with more vodka and fresh vanilla beans, and wait a few months before using.