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Dessert

Marshmallow Drops

A sweet confection made from gum arabic, sugar, egg whites, and marshmallow tincture, set in a tin and cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Marshmallow Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve the gum arabic in water and strain the solution to remove any specks.

  2. Place the solution in a saucepan over medium heat and add the sugar.

  3. Stir continuously until the sugar dissolves and the mixture reaches a honey-like consistency.

Finish and set

  1. Gradually add the beaten egg whites, stirring until the mixture is thin and no longer sticks to your fingers.

  2. Flavor with tincture of marshmallow to your liking.

  3. Pour the mixture into a lightly greased tin or earthen vessel dusted with powdered starch.

  4. Once cool, cut into squares and dust the pieces with more starch.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gum arabic
Forms the body of the mixture and helps it set into a firm, chewy texture.
White sugar
Dissolves into the solution to add sweetness and build a thick, honey-like consistency.
Egg whites
Whipped into the syrup to add airiness and lightness to the set confection.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg whites. Adding beaten egg whites to a hot syrup must be done gradually while stirring, so they blend evenly instead of cooking into lumps. Stirring until the mixture stops sticking to the fingers shows it has cooled and thickened enough to set properly.

“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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