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Dessert

Pistachio Sauce

A creamy sauce made with milk, flour, egg, sugar, vanilla, cream, pistachios, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and nuts match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Pistachio Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour and sugar.

  3. Slowly add the flour mixture to the scalded milk, stirring constantly.

  4. Beat the egg slightly and add the beaten egg to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the cream.

  6. Cook for 20 minutes in a double boiler.

Finish the sauce

  1. Cool the mixture.

  2. Add the flavoring, pistachio nuts, and green coloring paste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Flour + pistachiotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vanilla + pistachiotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Vanilla + nutstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the sauce as it cooks and adds richness to the custard.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the sauce becomes smooth and body-rich.
Pistachio nuts
Supply the main nutty flavor and texture of the sauce.
Cream
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and balances its flavor.

The step that matters

Cook for 20 minutes in a double boiler. Gentle indirect heat lets the flour starch thicken the milk while the egg sets slowly without curdling. Direct high heat can scorch the milk or scramble the egg, leaving the sauce grainy.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, sugar, vanilla, cream, pistachio):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, sugar, vanilla, cream, pistachio. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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