Pistachio Ice Cream (1896)
Reader ratingsPistachio ice cream with no pistachios in it: a pale green custard ice cream flavored with vanilla and almond, after Fannie Merritt Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896.
- Recipe makes
- About 1 quart, 6 servings
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The custard takes about 15 minutes over hot water. Chill it at least 3 hours, churn for 20 to 30 minutes, then freeze for about 2 hours to firm.
Pistachio ice cream on a blue-and-white plate.
The story behind the recipe
Fannie Merritt Farmer’s pistachio ice cream has no pistachios in it. Her Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896 makes it from her second vanilla ice cream, flavored with “one tablespoon vanilla and one teaspoon almond extract,” and colored “with Burnett’s Leaf Green.”
Green and almond
The flavor is almond; only the color says pistachio. Nuts appear one recipe further down, in Farmer’s Pistachio Bisque, which adds half a cup each of pounded macaroons, chopped almonds and peanuts, still without a pistachio. In Elizabeth W. Champney’s novel Witch Winnie of 1889, the ice-cream ducks a group of schoolgirls served had “pistache wings.” The novel has no recipe, so whether those wings held any nuts is unknown.
Read more about this recipe
A cooked custard
The base is Farmer’s Vanilla Ice Cream II: two cups of scalded milk thickened with a tablespoon of flour and one egg, sweetened with a cup of sugar, and cooked over hot water for twenty minutes. If it looks curdled, she reassures the cook, “it will disappear in freezing.” Once cool, it gets a quart of thin cream and the flavoring, and is strained and frozen.
Making it today
We make half the batch, for a home machine, keeping the whole egg. We cook the custard to at least 160°F (71°C), the temperature at which egg is safe, and check it with a thermometer as well as by the clock. Light cream stands in for her thin cream, and any green food coloring will do. Serve a scoop beside the Strawberry Ice Cream (1896) for the colors of Champney’s ducks, and read about them in What Did a Total Abstinence Candy Society Eat Instead?.
Prepare as Vanilla Ice Cream II., using for flavoring one tablespoon vanilla and one teaspoon almond extract; color with Burnett’s Leaf Green.
Vanilla Ice Cream II.
2 cups scalded milk. 1 tablespoon flour. 1 cup sugar. 1 egg. ⅛ teaspoon salt. 1 quart thin cream. 2 tablespoons vanilla.
Mix flour, sugar, and salt, add egg slightly beaten, and milk gradually; cook over hot water twenty minutes, stirring constantly at first; should custard have curdled appearance, it will disappear in freezing. When cool, add cream and flavoring; strain and freeze.
Recipe makes: About 1 quart, 6 servings
Ingredients
For about 1 quart, 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 1 quart, 6 servings.
- Whole milk1 cup
- Sugar1/2 cup
- All-purpose flour1 1/2 tsp
- Salt1 pinch
- Large egg1
- Light cream2 cups
- Vanilla extract1 1/2 tsp
- Almond extract1/2 tsp
- Green food coloring, a few drops
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 cup whole milk
- ½ cup sugar
- 1½ tsp all-purpose flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups light cream
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
- Green food coloring, a few drops
Equipment
- Double boiler, or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water
Small saucepan
Whisk
Instant-read thermometer- Fine-mesh strainer
- Ice cream maker, 1½-quart size or larger
- Freezer container with a lid
Instructions
Put the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer the day before, if it needs it.
Heat the whole milk in the small saucepan until small bubbles form at the edge.
In the top of the double boiler, off the heat, whisk the sugar, flour and salt together. Whisk in the egg, then the hot milk, a little at a time.
Set it over simmering water and cook, whisking constantly at first and then often, until the custard reaches at least 160°F (71°C), coats a spoon and no longer tastes of flour, 15 to 20 minutes.
Strain the custard into a bowl and let it cool, then stir in the light cream, vanilla extract and almond extract. Add green food coloring a drop at a time until the mixture is a pale green.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until very cold.
Churn in the ice cream maker until thick, like soft-serve, 20 to 30 minutes.
Scrape it into the freezer container, press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface, cover and freeze for about 2 hours, until firm enough to scoop.
Nutrition
265calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 1 quart, 6 servings
- Servings
- 6
Estimated per ⅔-cup serving from USDA FoodData Central values for the listed ingredients.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Half of Farmer’s Vanilla Ice Cream II, flavored as her pistachio. Keep one whole egg when halving.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Almond extract is strong; add it last and taste before adding more. For Farmer’s Pistachio Bisque, stir in crushed macaroons, chopped almonds and chopped peanuts as you scrape the ice cream into the container. The ice cream is best within a week. Contains milk, egg and wheat; the bisque adds tree nuts and peanuts.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Fannie Merritt Farmer, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (Boston, 1896), Pistachio Ice Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream II
Recipe details
- Course
- Dessert
- Dish family
- Desserts & Sweets
- Region
- American
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1890s
- Main ingredient
- Milk & creamEggs
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Season
- Summer