Noyeux Ice Cream

[minoanmiss]

I should make this during cherry season, so the pits can tint the ice cream faintly pink.

Watch on YouTube

(Came upstairs to look something up and decided to toss this on here as well)

ETA science safety discussion in comments.

Comments

[acelightning73]

I know that cherry pits and peach pits are poisonous, so apricot pits might be also.

[aurumcalendula]

I believe apricot pits are too.

[minoanmiss]

When they're raw, yes. But once again fire comes to save the day!

ETA ... or maybe not: see dissectionist's informed comment.s

[dissectionist]

What the hap is fuckening here? This is dangerous as hell. It takes thirty minutes of boiling to release the cyanide compounds (when then turn into a toxic gas and are released from the surface of the water into the air, so if you must play with them, use a heavy-duty ventilation fan and P100 ventilator). Steeping them for a bit isn’t going to do jack shit to make them safe. And it looks like she roasted them, which makes them even more dangerous.

[dissectionist]

I wish every food blogger who puts unsafe recipes into the world could be held financially and legally accountable for anyone they harm. (This is a particular sore spot for me because of canning safety; up to 80% of the salsa recipes posted online as intended for canning would be capable of harboring botulism, for example. I’ve even seen professional canning cookbooks that had untested recipes that could kill people.)

[minoanmiss]

Wait, I thought roasting would deactivate the enzymes that release the cyanide. Can you tell me more about how roasting makes this more dangerous? (Also, thank you a lot)

[dissectionist]

I couldn’t explain the organic chemistry since I don’t understand it myself, but Chinese sites (I just cross-posted a Singaporean one with your comment) make it clear not to roast them.

[dissectionist]

Here is more info about apricot kernels (using a Singapore source because they have much more cultural familiarity with the phenomenon than a Western source) and how they can and can’t be eaten safely.
https://www.sfa.gov.sg/food-safety-tips/food-risk-concerns/risk-at-a-glance/apricot-kernels

New Zealand has actually banned their sale outright due to the danger. https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/safe-eat/apricot-and-peach-kernels-and-apple-and-pear-seeds-are-unsafe-to-eat/

[minoanmiss]

makes notes Thank you.

[dissectionist]

Also as your Friendly Neighborhood Cancer Researcher, since we’re on the topic of apricot kernels: please never take apricot kernel supplements if anyone gets cancer. There’s zero evidence that it reduces the risk of getting cancer or curing cancer, and we have had cancer patients who ended up with hypoxia or cyanide poisoning as a result of this practice.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for the link -- I have a dear friend whose massage therapist has commended apricot pits to her as a cancer preventive and I need all the ammunition I can lay hands on.

[dissectionist]

The short version is that in a petri dish, we can get amygdalin (the compound that becomes cyanide) to damage cancer cells.

The problem is that we have a shit-ton of things that damage or destroy cancer cells in petri dishes. We also have a shit-ton of things that can cure cancer in mice. (I joke that if you get cancer, the best thing you can do is become a mouse.) But when you scale things up from a petri dish or a mouse to the complexity of a human, almost all of those things that worked before suddenly no longer work. And we did test it in humans; we’ve known since the early 80s that it doesn’t work. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7033783/ But it just won’t fucking die because woo peddlers keep advising it to people. So we keep seeing cancer patients making themselves even worse.

[minoanmiss]

Oyyyyyy.

[flamingsword]

Okay, as a massage therapist, depending on how this was recommended, you could get the LMT in deep shit if you wanted to. If they said, “I heard something about apricot pits curing some cancers; you should look into it.” Then that’s fine … ish. But if the therapist said “I recommend X poisonous thing if you’re worried about cancer treatment.” … then that is called a scope of practice violation, or possibly even practicing medicine without a license, depending on the wording. It’s a big no-no in almost every US state that has laws about MT licensing, and you can web search your location and “massage therapy” + “licensing board” if you need to threaten the therapist to get them to stop that shit.

I am so sick of kooks, quacks, sex offenders, and assorted nonsense getting associated with my job bc people don’t want to practice having professional boundaries and guidelines. Aaargh.

[full_metal_ox]

Psst…here’s a closely related plant species whose seeds I bet would work in this ice cream:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond

[acelightning73]

Almonsds are related to all the above mentions fruits with cyanide-bearing seeds. "Bitter almond" flavoring is made from those pits, and it deserves its bad reputation. Eating almonds is okay, but soaking or cooking the seeds is a trip to the gas chamber.

Oh, and the seeds in the core of an apple are also toxic.

[full_metal_ox]

Eating almonds is okay, but soaking or cooking the seeds is a trip to the gas chamber.

How about plain old sweet almonds? Commercially toasted or, particularly, smoked, they’ve long been a go-to snack of mine.

[minoanmiss]

If I ever lose my mind and decide to make sugar coated almonds by hand I know where to send them!

[acelightning73]

Sweet almonds don't have the enzyme that releases the cyanide. So a marzipan sculpture of your favorite heartthrob won't kill you, unless you have diabetes and go into a high-blood-sugar crisis.

[minoanmiss]

But I don't like almonds. I have infused cherry pits into milk and alcohol and liked the flavor, but this discussion has shown me I need to do some more research.

(If I liked almonds I would be a sculptress, because I would make SO MUCH SCULPTED MARZIPAN. And eat the failures!)

[acelightning73]

Somewhere in the dim past I learned how to make marzipan roses, and somehow I turned out to be very good at it. I also got good at making bacon roses, but I can't eat very much bacon at one sitting without severe distress.

[dissectionist]

Have you played with marshmallow fondant? It’s like working with Sculpey except it’s edible (it doesn’t taste nasty like the fondant you can buy at stores for covering wedding cakes and such). It’s also dog-easy to make since it’s basically just melted marshmallows and powdered sugar.

These are two MMF cakes I’ve made (among the many), to show the sort of things that can be done with it:

[Image description: a zombie-themed sheet cake inside a cake box. The frosting is white, with red splashes like blood. The entire top of the cake has been covered by Oreo cookie crumbs to create a dirt-like appearance. Small marshmallow fondant letters spell out “happy birthday” in erratic placement, with a name below that has been redacted in the picture by being covered with a blue scribble. Below the text are two sets of marshmallow fondant zombie hands coming out of the dirt, with only the fingers and thumbs visible so far; on one hand the fingers are flexed to press against the dirt for leverage, while the other hand’s fingers are curved and rising out of the ground. Grape skins have been used to create discolored fingernails, and the fingers themselves are mottled blue-grey and moss green. It’s not visible in the photo, but the fingers have pretzel-stick “bones” inside for support.]
https://postimg.cc/hhkDkdzq

[Image description: a horse-themed round, tall cake. The top shows a field of green buttercream grass surrounded a tan buttercream racing track, with coarse yellow sugar sprinkled over it to indicate sand. Along the edges of the field, the track, and the base of the cake are what look like multicolored rocks, but they’re actually chocolate. The sides of the cake are swirled green buttercream to indicate more grass, with flat, cartoon-style horse heads viewed from the side, made of marshmallow fondant. Sitting in the center field on top is a 3D, cartoon-style white and grey horse, also made of marshmallow fondant. It looks friendly and cheerful.]
https://postimg.cc/9Dqg768T

That zombie cake was for Younger’s seventh birthday; he was obsessed with zombies when he was 6 and 7. The staff at Chuck E Cheeses were rather concerned about that being a birthday cake for a 7-year-old, LOL. But he loved it. (And his previous birthday cake had been a cartoon-style zombie Princess Celestia from My Little Pony, because he was obsessed with both zombies and MLP when he was six.)

[anna_wing]

"Laetrile" as the cure for cancer was a thing in my distant youth (the 1970s), and very popular in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). That Singaporean warning is addressing a very real danger. My understanding is that the apricot referred to in TCM isn't the same as the apricot known in the West, it's the Japanese one, Prunus mume so more plum-like. But the kernel is just as poisonous.

[full_metal_ox]

My understanding is that the apricot referred to in TCM isn't the same as the apricot known in the West, it's the Japanese one, Prunus mume so more plum-like.

Also the fruit used to make umeboshi (pickled plums) and umezuke (pickled plum vinegar), and it’s picked unripe and therefore sour for the purpose.

The recipes I’ve seen for TCM pills, teas, and soups stress their medicinal nature, with carefully specified dosage and contraindications of who shouldn’t use them—you don’t just chug it down because it’s vaguely Good For You.

(Totally grokking Wuxia movies and having a dragon tattoo does not constitute a TCM pharmaceutical certification.)

[anna_wing]

Yes, most TCM are meant to be prescription-only. A Chinese medicine hall would normally have a practitioner there. I would never buy anything beyond something purely culinary like dried shiitake mushrooms without a consultation.