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1
In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, salt, and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
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2
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the saucepan, then drop in the pod.
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3
Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep for 30 minutes.
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4
Pour the cream into a medium bowl and set a mesh strainer across the top.
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5
Reheat the milk mixture until its warm.
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6
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm milk mixture, whisking constantly as you pour.
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7
Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.
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8
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan with a heatproof spatula, until the custard is thick enough to coat the spatula.
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9
Pour the custard through the mesh strainer into the heavy cream.
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10
Rinse the vanilla pod and return it to the custard to continue steeping; stir in the vanilla extract.
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11
Set the bowl containing the custard over a larger bowl of ice water.
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12
Stir the custard until cool, then cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
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13
Remove the vanilla bean (it can be rinsed, dried, and used for another purpose; see page 14) and freeze the chilled custard in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturers instructions.
