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Pistachio Ice Cream
Blanch and peel 1/4 of a pound of pistachios, and pound them to a smooth paste with a few drops of rose-water. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs, and pour over them 11/2 pints of boiling milk; add 4 ounces of powdered sugar, and stir the custard over the fire until it begins to thicken; then pour it out, and when cool stir into it the pounded pistachios and a teaspoonful of spinach coloring. Pass the whole through a sieve; mould and freeze. If preferred, the pistachio paste can be mixed with cream instead of custard. Time, about a quarter of an hour to boil the custard. Sufficient for 1 quart of ice cream.
A classic French-style pistachio custard base, coloured with spinach juice rather than the bright green dye of later commercial versions. The hinge is the custard: it must thicken without boiling, or it will curdle and no amount of sieving will save the texture.
- The custard temperatureCook the yolk-and-milk mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a spoon — roughly 170-180F. The original's "about a quarter of an hour to boil the custard" is a timing, not an instruction to let it boil; at a true boil the yolks scramble.
- MeasurementsThe milk quantity is given as one and a half pints, which is 3 cups in US measure. Four ounces of powdered sugar is about 1/2 cup granulated by weight; 1/4 pound of pistachios is roughly 1 cup of shelled nuts before peeling.
- Blanching the nutsPour boiling water over shelled pistachios, let them stand a minute, then drain and rub off the skins in a towel. Even peeled, the paste is only faintly green, which is why the recipe adds colour.
- PoundingA food processor replaces the mortar. Grind the nuts with the rose water and a spoonful of the warm milk to keep them from turning to nut butter and separating out their oil.
- Rose water"A few drops" is deliberate restraint — modern rose water varies enormously in strength, so start with 1/4 teaspoon and taste. Overdone, it reads as soap.
- Spinach coloringThis is spinach juice, made by pounding raw spinach leaves and pressing out the green liquid, sometimes gently heated and strained. A teaspoon tints the cream without flavouring it. Any modern green colouring, or simply no colouring at all, does the same job.
- Sieving and chillingPass the finished base through a fine sieve to catch nut fragments and any cooked bits of egg, then chill it thoroughly — several hours, or overnight — before it goes into the machine. A warm base churns to a coarse, icy texture.
- Freezing and yield"Mould and freeze" assumes a pail-and-dasher freezer packed with ice and salt. In a modern ice cream maker, churn 20-25 minutes and ripen in the freezer for two hours. The quart it makes serves six modestly.