Good Eats Dulce De Leche - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 quart whole milk
12 ounces sugar, by weight (approximately 1.5 cups)
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preparation

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat.
Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine.
Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour.
Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.