Scraping the seeds out of a pod removes the caviar, not the flavor. The husk that is left still holds aromatic oils and plenty of vanillin. Throwing it away is throwing away half the purchase.
1. Vanilla sugar
The classic, and still the best return on effort. Rinse the spent pod if it has been in liquid, dry it fully, and bury it in a jar of sugar. In a week or two the sugar smells like a pastry kitchen. Top up the sugar as you use it; one pod keeps working for months. Use it anywhere plain sugar goes: coffee, whipped cream, cookie dough.
2. Vanilla salt
Same idea, savory direction. A dried pod buried in flaky salt gives you a finishing salt for caramel, chocolate desserts, roasted fruit, and, for the adventurous, seared scallops.
3. Straight into the pot
A spent pod still flavors a slow infusion. Drop it into milk or cream headed for custard, into the syrup for poached pears, or into a pot of oatmeal while it cooks. Fish it out before serving. It will not carry a dish alone, but it deepens one.
4. The extract jar
If you keep a jar of homemade extract going, spent pods belong in it. They keep contributing flavor as the extract matures, and the jar becomes a running home for every pod you finish. Our guide to making extract covers the method.
5. Vanilla powder
Dry spent pods completely, until they snap rather than bend, then grind them fine in a spice grinder. The powder is intense, holds up in high heat baking where extract fades, and needs no liquid. Sift it into dry ingredients or dust it over finished desserts.
The habit worth keeping
Keep one jar for sugar and one for drying pods, and a single purchase of whole beans stretches across months of cooking. One ingredient, used all the way to the end.