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Meringues aux Pistachios
(Meringues of Pistachio.) Quarter of a pound of pistachio kernels, peeled, dried and pounded, with two whites of eggs, and mixed with a quarter of a pound of sugar.
Whisk all over the fire until it becomes lukewarm. Take off and whisk until it is cold. Shape the meringues and bake them as usual.
This is a Swiss meringue — whites and sugar warmed over water before whipping — rather than the cold-whisked kind, and the nuts go in at the start. That order matters, because the warm phase is what lets a batter carrying that much nut oil hold air at all.
- QuantitiesA quarter pound is 4 oz (115 g) of shelled pistachios and 4 oz (115 g) of sugar; two egg whites is about 65-70 g. That is roughly one part nut to one part sugar. The sugar-to-white proportion is the usual one for meringue; the nuts dilute it, so expect a softer, chewier result than a dry shell.
- Peeled and driedPeeling means blanching the shelled kernels in boiling water for a minute, then slipping off the papery skins so the colour stays green. Dry them thoroughly in a very low oven before pounding; damp nuts will slacken the meringue.
- Pounding without oilingPounded far enough, pistachios will oil and turn to paste, and a food processor does it in seconds. Pulse them with a few spoonfuls of the weighed sugar, which absorbs the released oil and keeps the mixture powdery.
- "Whisk over the fire"Use a bowl over barely simmering water, not direct heat, and whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture reaches about 120F (50C) — lukewarm to a clean finger. Then take it off and whisk until fully cold and thick; abandoning it warm gives a batter that spreads flat.
- "Bake as usual"The recipe gives no oven description at all. The usual modern equivalent for meringues is a very slow oven, on the order of 200-225F (95-110C) for an hour or more, essentially drying rather than baking. Nut meringues tend to colour faster than plain ones, so keep the temperature at the low end and prop the door if the oven runs hot.
- ShapingPipe or spoon walnut-sized mounds onto parchment, spaced well apart. The mixture is heavier than plain meringue and is unlikely to hold a tall rosette; the recipe says only "shape the meringues" and does not specify a form.
- YieldPerhaps 20 to 24 small meringues, or a dozen if sandwiched in pairs with whipped cream, one common way of serving them. The recipe itself says nothing about how they were finished or served.
Meringue reached British professional kitchens through the French repertoire, and the name is generally traced — on tradition rather than documents — either to the Swiss town of Meiringen or to a pastry cook named Gasparini; the technique of warming whites and sugar together before whipping is known as Swiss meringue, though the link between the two names is not documented. Pistachios were an expensive imported store cupboard luxury in nineteenth-century Britain, valued as much for their green colour as their flavour, and they recur in the sweets chapters of high-class cookery manuals: blanching and peeling a quarter pound of kernels by hand was a job for a kitchen with staff. Books of this kind were written for cooks in large private households and for the pupils of the cookery schools that multiplied after the 1870s, which is why the instructions assume the reader already knows how meringues are shaped and baked and says only "as usual."