The bean pod does provide flavor. Given enough time, I'd mince the pod, infuse the sugar the night or a couple of days before, then strain it out before making the cheesecake.

Secondarily I'd use the scraped-out seeds.

Carol

I like using the pod. I just mince it very finely. If you're worried about how fine you can get it just slice it up and put it in the food processor with the amount of sugar you're going to use in the cheesecake and grind away.

I'm with Coconut. FP with the sugar, or part of the sugar called for.

Typical. Half the time I don't even remember my food processor. That is a good option. I think I'm just predisposed to "slow."

Carol

Slow would have been good, I think, Carol! This is a recipe from 1945. Hand-mincing was all that was possible. They'd have ended up with fewer, larger pieces, and in retrospect, I think that would actually have been better than lots of very tiny ones. You could pick them out.
The idea of making the vanilla sugar ahead of time is a good one too.

I processed the sugar with pieces of the bean. And processed, and processed. I ended up with sugar so superfine that some of it was powdered, and my whole kitchen was covered with a fine white dust. But the bits of bean were not fine enough. I started the sifting process. Parts passing through the strainer still looked like tiny bugs -- not the look I wanted in my cheesecake! Changing to my finest tea strainer, I couldn't get the sugar to pass through. By that time I just wanted to get finished, and I used Penzey's double-strength vanilla. It was late, I was tired and hungry for dinner, so I was really glad to have the cake in the oven, and glad I had finally made this recipe.
Then I saw the cup of sour cream sitting on the counter.
Sigh. So I still have not tried Katish's Cheesecake.

I'll report back on how Sort-of Katish's Cheesecake tastes.
It actually rose to the top of the pan, so the extra cup pof volume might have been a problem (or might just have risen up and stayed okay).

Here is a link that might be useful: Katish's Cheesecake

I actually looked up her book; I think I'm going to buy it. It sounds charming and I'm glad you mentioned the recipe.

I have to confess even with the FP I would have gone with the infused sugar because for me the grittiness of ground bean counteracts the creamy smoothness of the cheesecake.

I was thinking about this last night; I can see a table of diners circa 1940's gently releasing bits of vanilla bean onto their forks then placing them to the side of the plate, akin to small pits in fruit.

What a luxury this cheesecake must have been post WWII rationing.

[I probably need better things to think about, LOL.]

Carol

Well, it tasted fine after all. Dense, but good. I was afraid it would be too sweet since the cup of sour cream was left out. It did fall and crack a lot, though, so it wasn't very pretty. It also got darker than the photo, so I could have taken it out sooner.