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Pistachio Ice Cream

A frozen dessert made with pistachios, cream, powdered sugar, and a little milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Pistachio Ice Cream

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pistachio Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Blanch the pistachios in hot water, then peel and pound them until smooth, adding a little cream or milk to prevent oil separation.

  2. Prepare 1 pint of cream as directed in a previous recipe.

  3. Add the pounded pistachios to the cream and strain it several times through a sieve.

  4. Sweeten with ½ pound of powdered sugar to taste.

Freeze

  1. When cold, pour the mixture into the freezing pot and churn until frozen.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Pistachio + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Pistachio + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Pistachios
Provide the main nutty flavour and colour, and their oil gives the ice cream its richness.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture that stays creamy after freezing.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and, dissolving easily, helps keep the texture smooth.

The step that matters

Pounding the pistachios with cream or milk. Pistachios are rich in oil, and grinding them dry can cause the oil to separate, leaving a greasy, grainy texture. Adding a little cream or milk helps the nuts blend into a smooth paste.

Swap the pistachio

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Pistachiothe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. 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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