Name: Orange Marshmallow
Ingredients: 1 lb marshmallows; Juice of 2 oranges; Juice of 2 China oranges; ¾ cup sugar

Why it works: Orange and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange Marshmallow

Ingredients

1 lb marshmallows
Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 2 China oranges
¾ cup sugar

Directions

Prepare

Cut each marshmallow into 4 pieces.
Squeeze the strained juice of the oranges over the marshmallows.
Add ¾ cup or more of sugar.

Mix and chill

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set on ice.

Serve

Serve in sherbet glasses with a maraschino cherry on top of each glass.

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.

Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Marshmallows: Provide sweetness and the soft, airy body of the dessert.
Orange juice: Adds acidity and bright citrus flavor that balances the sweetness.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps balance the tart orange juice.

“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.