Pistachio - Why Are Some Dyed Red?
jac
EVERYDAY LIFE by David Feldman, BOMC, 1987, ISBN 0-688-05914-7, pg. 26-28.
"As if Iranians didn't have enough public relations problems, they have
something else to answer for: They're responsible for that red gook you get
on your hands after eating pistachio nuts.
Pistachios originated in the Middle East, growing wild in the deserts in
ancient times. Pistachios were considered a rare delicacy and were so
expensive that they were consumed mostly by royalty (the queen of Sheba was a
pistachio partisan) and exported to Europe. Pistachios were grown in Greece
and Sicily during the Roman Empire and remained popular in the Medeterranean,
but didn't really catch on in the United States until the first great wave of
immigrants from southern Europe in the 1880s.
Pistachios didn't become a mass-marketed item until the 1930s, when they were
placed in vending machines, the type that is now used mostly to sell gumballs
and assorted teen idol paraphernalia in front of markets and Woolworth's. the
main reason pistachios were dyed bright red was to make pistachios stand out
from the relatively pallid cashews and peanuts that were their main
vending-machine competition.
It worked. Pistachios were a hit, even at their premium price -- especially
with kids, who were attracted by their shiny shells. So the choice of red was
fortuitous. But why were pistachios dyed in the first place? In order to
answer this question, we will have to tell you a little more than you probably
waht to know about the cultivation and harvesting of pistachios.
The natural color of a pistachio shell is ivory. But when pistachios are ripe
and ready to be harvested (usually in September and October), the shell is
encased by a thin rose-colored hull. When it ripens, the shell of the
pistachio splits naturally, thus enabling the purchaser to open the shell with
the fingernails rathern than the bicuspids. While the pistachios are still on
the tree, the rose hull protects not only the nutmeat, but the opening shell
of the pistachio.
Iranian pistachios are harvested the same way now as they were a century ago.
Workeers knock the nuts off pistachio trees with poles. The nuts are picked
off the ground by hand and thrown in burlap bags. Often, the nuts sit in
these bags for weeks. The protective hull of the pistachio is removed by
rubbing the nuts against rough surfaces, usually stones.
All of this manual contact with the vulnerable nut results in staining the
shell. And though the stain doesn't affect the taste of the nutmeat, and the
resultant shell has the aesthetic appeal of a pale linen tablecloth with sweat
stains. The red vegetable dye, first introduced by American importers in the
1930s, was a marketing tactic to draw attention to the pistachios in vending
machines and to allay customers' fears about the blotched shells.
American farmers realized that pistachios were a potentially valuable crop,
but there were several stumbling blocks to cultivation in this country.
Pistachio trees are unusually sensitive to inclement weather, and it takes
from seven to ten years for planting until the first yield begins. Many
species of pistachios had shells that didn't seem to want to open.
Pistachios were a natural for California, which had the requisite warmth and
dryness that pistachios demand. Eventually, California farmers settled on the
Kerman tree -- a strain of pistachios that had large nutmeats and split open
naturally more often than others they researched. Pistachios were first
planted commercially in the late 1960s and were first marketed in 1976.
The American farmers developed a technology not only to maximize effeciency,
but to eliminate the need to dye pistachios. Pistachios are shaken off the
tree by machines and never hit the ground. The nuts are immediately loaded
into containers and processed: cleaned of leaves and twigs, hulled, washed
and dried. The hulling and drying is accomplished so quickly that the shells
have no time to strain, and they can be marketed in their natural ivory color.
It is difficult to see why anyone would want to buy the red-dyed pistachios
when the naturals are available (it's a little like an M&M clone competing by
boasting that they "melt in your hand, not in your mouth"), but old habits die
hard. Although customer preference is the only reason to do so, 40-50 percent
of California pistachios are dyed red. The California Pistachio Commission
reprots that it expected consumers to switch to natural pistachios quickly but
have found that East Coast customers particularly resist the change. New
purchasers of pistachios, however, invariably choose naturals.
Red-dyed pistachios eventually may become a fondly remembered figment of our
nostalgic past (although not too soon, since most imported pistachios are
still dyed red), but it is unlikely that too many tears will be shed over the
passing of the white pistachio, which can still be seen occasionally. Whit
pistachios, after they were roasted, were coated with a mixture of salt and
cornstarch that not only managed to come off on one's hands but also to mask
the subtle, buttery taste of the pistachio. Even Imponderables can't answer
why anyone would want to dye a pistachio that awful color."
With that said, how about some pistachio recipes?
JoAnne