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Dessert

Pistachio Paste

A pistachio-flavored paste made by mixing pistachio nuts, almond extract, and food coloring with marshmallow paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Pistachio Paste

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the marshmallow paste with almond extract.

  2. Add the chopped pistachio nuts and mix well.

  3. Incorporate leaf green food coloring until desired color is achieved.

  4. Use as you would use marshmallow 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 + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Nuts + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched and chopped pistachio nuts
Adds crunch and a nutty flavor to the marshmallow paste.
Almond extract
Adds a distinct aroma that complements the pistachio flavor.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pistachio, almond):

  1. Cashew nutfits better
  2. Brazil nutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pistachio, almond. 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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