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Pistachio Paste
To Marshmallow Paste add a few drops extract of almond, one-third cup pistachio nuts blanched and chopped, and leaf green to color. Use same as Marshmallow Paste.
A variation rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you have the book's Marshmallow Paste in front of you, and only tells you what to stir in. Everything here hinges on the base being soft and warm enough to accept additions without going grainy.
- Work while the base is warmMarshmallow paste stiffens as it cools and will tear rather than fold once set. Add the extract, nuts and colour while the paste is still pliable, then spread at once.
- PistachiosUse raw unsalted kernels, not the roasted salted snacking sort. Cover with boiling water for a minute, drain, and slip off the papery skins between finger and thumb; the skins are what dull the colour. A third of a cup is about 1.5 oz shelled.
- Chop, do not grindA food processor turns blanched pistachios to oily paste in seconds, which will streak the marshmallow grey-green. Chop by hand to roughly the size of coarse sugar.
- "Leaf green"A shade name from period lists of food colourings, roughly the yellow-green of a spring leaf. A drop of modern green gel colour with a trace of yellow gives the same effect; modern colourings are generally stronger than period ones, so add from the tip of a toothpick.
- Extract of almondA few drops means a few drops. Modern almond extract owes its flavour to benzaldehyde and is potent enough that half a teaspoon will overwhelm the pistachio entirely; start with three or four drops in the full quantity of paste.
The almond extract here is doing quiet work -- it reinforces a flavour note pistachio shares with almond, a pairing still used in pistachio confectionery and ice cream. The base itself marks a change already largely complete by Fannie Farmer's day: marshmallow had begun as a confection thickened with the root of the marsh mallow plant, but by the 1890s it generally meant gelatin, sugar and egg white, and cooks could buy marshmallows ready-made to melt down. Tinting a filling or frosting to suggest its flavour was common in this period, and household colourings were sold by shade name.