Slice lengthways. Scrape seeds from pod carefully with the blade of a knife. Add scraped-out empty pod to a jar of sugar for total use of the bean.
Vanilla is derived from the pod of a certain variety of orchid, and this pod is called a vanilla bean. To make vanilla you have to soak vanilla beans in vodka to extract the flavor. So no, usable vanilla is never a solid.
The same amount of regular sugar and the seeds from a vanilla pod, or the same amount of regular sugar with some vanilla extract.
coconut flavoring make it taste similar to coconut but does not have the real flavor, on the other hand, coconut extract has real coconut flavoring and is more sweeter than the coconut flavoring
Extract in "vanilla extract" is simply the liquid extracted from the insides of a vanilla bean.
Unless specified otherwise vanilla in a recipe is generally vanilla extract.
Vanilla is the flavour extracted from the Vanilla pod, (part of the Vanilla Orchid which contains the seeds) so the vanilla pod is the answer to your question.
You can get a bottle of vanilla extract at any grocery store.
There are several good rated brands of imitation vanilla extract, but some of my favourites are Flurber's Imitation Vanilla Extract, and Hopperstein's Imitation Vanilla Extract.
Vanilla extract can be substitute for vanilla essence on a 1:1 basis (e.g 1tsp of vanilla extract is equal to 1tsp vanilla essence), on a strength-for-strength basis at least. But the flavour of vanilla essence will never be as good as the flavour from vanilla extract, no matter how much of it you use.
Yes you can and unless it is recipe that's main ingredient is vanilla bean, most people will not be able to tell the difference. As a matter of fact, most people can't tell the difference between pure vanilla extract and imitation that costs a LOT less. I use 1 teaspoon of extract for 1 pod of vanilla bean. If you are worried about the liquid imbalance in the recipe, decrease another of your liquids by a teaspoon.
no
Vanilla extract can be used in place of vanilla bean paste. The equivalent of 1 tablespoon of paste is 1 tbsp. extract.