Pistachio

Pistachios are an inclusion rather than a seasoning. In a mortadella, a Norddeutsche Mortadella, a galantine or a fine pale terrine, the whole or halved nuts are distributed through the farce so that a slice shows green against pink, and that visual effect is a substantial part of why they are there. The flavour they contribute is mild, sweet and slightly resinous, and it is subordinate to the appearance in most products that use them.

The colour is worth a note. A pistachio's green comes from chlorophyll, and it fades with heat and time. Nuts that go into a mortadella cooked long and slow at a modest temperature keep their colour reasonably; the same nuts pushed hard will grey towards khaki, which is one of the visual tells of a poorly cooked mortadella. Sicilian pistachios, particularly those from Bronte, are prized in Italian charcuterie specifically because they are more intensely green as well as more flavoursome.

Unsalted and unroasted is the form for charcuterie. Salted nuts throw the salt calculation of the formula out, in a product where the salt has been set deliberately, and roasted nuts are both darker and more brittle, so they fragment rather than staying whole in a slice. Blanching to remove the skins is common where a very clean green is wanted.

They are used at low levels, typically 10 to 30 g per kilo of farce, and distributed rather than mixed hard, because working them through an emulsion breaks them up and loses the effect.

One technical point: nuts are high in unsaturated fat, which means they oxidise and can go rancid independently of the meat. In a long-keeping product a stale nut will make the whole slice taste stale, so pistachios for charcuterie should be fresh, bought in quantities that get used, and stored cold.