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Pistachio Drops
Pistachio drops are another agreeable confection. They require half pound of nuts, half pound of flour, one quarter of a pound of confectioner's sugar and half teaspoonful of baking powder. Rub one-half tablespoonful of butter in the flour, add half of the sugar and all the baking powder, and mix to a stiff paste, using a little cold water and the yolk of an egg. Roll this paste out about one-quarter of an inch in thickness and cut in small squares. Next prepare the paste by blanching the nuts and cutting them in not too small pieces, stir in the white of an egg, well beaten, and the remainder of the sugar. Put this paste on the squares and bake in a rather hot oven until a very light brown.
A shortbread-style base under a pistachio meringue topping, written in the shorthand of a cook who assumed you knew how a stiff paste should feel. Two things need judgement: the liquid, which is unmeasured, and the oven, which must be hot enough to set the nut paste before it weeps.
- Weights in cupsHalf a pound of flour is about 1 3/4 cups; a quarter pound of confectioner's sugar is roughly 1 cup, sifted. Half a pound of shelled pistachios is about 1 3/4 cups of nuts.
- "A rather hot oven"In period usage this points to roughly 400-425F. "Until a very light brown" will probably mean 10-14 minutes for quarter-inch squares; start watching at about minute eight, since the egg-white and sugar topping colors before the base does.
- The unmeasured liquid"A little cold water and the yolk of an egg" is genuinely open. One yolk plus 1-2 tablespoons water will usually bring 1 3/4 cups of flour to a stiff, rollable paste; add the water a teaspoon at a time, since an over-wet paste spreads under the topping.
- Only half a tablespoon of butterProbably not a misprint, though there is no way to be sure. Either way it is very lean by modern standards, giving a hard, biscuit-like base closer to a cracker than a cookie; it reads as a support for the nut paste rather than a rich shortbread.
- Blanching the pistachiosCover the shelled nuts with boiling water for about a minute, drain, and rub the skins off in a towel. Skins on are perfectly edible but turn the topping a muddy brown-green instead of the pale green the recipe is after.
- Chop, do not grind"Not too small pieces" matters: coarsely chopped nuts hold the meringue up and give texture, while a fine grind releases oil and makes the topping heavy and greasy.
- Egg whiteOne white, beaten to soft peaks, is what the quantities imply. Fold in the remaining half of the sugar rather than beating it hard, and spread the paste thinly, since it puffs slightly in the oven.
- Yield and keepingExpect three to four dozen small squares. They keep about a week in a tin, though the base softens as it takes up moisture from the topping; they are best on the first day.
Pistachios reached American confectionery late and expensively. Through the nineteenth century they were imported, largely from the Mediterranean and the Near East, and were treated as a luxury ingredient. The construction, a thin rolled paste squared off and topped with a nut-and-egg-white paste, resembles the European confectioner's technique that also produces almond and hazelnut petits fours. Turn-of-the-century American cookbooks generally treated pistachio as a luxury flavor for ices, creams and small confections, and it rarely appears in plain family baking.