Dyeing the red shells of Pistachios somewhat makes sense: to cover thier blemishes… but green ice cream, cakes and muffins? This one is confusing! What is the relation between green food coloring and pistachio nuts? Is this yet another attempt to mask the pistachio’s ugliness, or is the ice cream dyed green to counteract the pistacios feelings of being dyed red, since green is the opposite of red? Hmm…
Red?
Never seen that. Here the outer shell is a kinda creamish colour but the nuts ‘skin’ has a greenish tinge.
Pistachio is not common as a flavour here, in fact the nuts themselves are new-ish (the last 5 yrs maybe) but I can understand green way before I can understand red.
Pistachio nuts (the nut itself, not the skin which is brown, or the shell, which is beigie) are green.
Actually, they’re bright green.
Buy a packet of pisctachios in their shells, peel them and you’ll see.
No colouring is required, that’s the actual colour you get when you crush them up. I’ve made pistachio cake from scratch, and it came out green, without the addition of any colouring agents!
I’m pretty sure Ben & Jerry’s Pistachio Pistachio isn’t bright green, more cream colored with a greenish tint.
Green they are.
Somewhere I’ve got a recipe for Pistachio Chicken Korma. Very nice, very rich, and very green!
Here seems to be a good place to ask this: Does anyone else think that pistachios are sort of ‘cheesy’ tasting? (I do)
- Mangetout – “cheesy” in the sense of rich? I never thought of it that way, but I love cheese and I love pistachios, maybe there’s a connection…
- An Arky – Yes, Ben & Jerry’s “Pistachio Pistachio” isn’t green. The ice cream part of it is the color of vanilla ice icream, and the pistachios themselves have a hint of natural green in them.
Dunno - I’ve just always thought of them as having a dairy-like flavour and mouthfeel to them - together with the generally savoury flavour, it always suggests cheese to me. I wonder what pistachio nut butter would be like.
calm kiwi - Red pistachios are a nostalgic throwback to a time when somebody got the bright idea of dying the nuts red to conceal blemishes they developed in handling and shipping.
We now know how to handle them without making them look awful, and more importantly, grow them locally so a multi-month ocean crossing is no longer needed. The reds are still sold, but the natural nuts are overwhelmingly more popular now since there’s no red to rub off on your fingers.