Skip to main content
Salad

Marshmallow Salad

A salad of marshmallows, almonds, pineapple, and whipped cream, seasoned with salt, vinegar, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Marshmallow Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanche the almonds and cut them into small pieces.

  2. Cut the marshmallows into quarters and the pineapple into small pieces.

  3. Mix the marshmallows, almonds, and pineapple in a bowl and let it stand.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks lightly, then add salt, vinegar, butter, and sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture until thick, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and, when almost cold, stir in the bowl of prepared ingredients.

Finish and serve

  1. Place in a cold area and just before serving, fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Almond + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Vinegar + pineappletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Marshmallows
Soften and sweeten the salad while adding chewy body to the mixture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cooked dressing as they set with gentle heat, giving it body.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft ingredients.
Cream
Whipped into the salad, it adds lightness and a creamy, moist texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar and marshmallows.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until thick, stirring constantly. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated or left unstirred, so the dressing must be stirred constantly over gentle heat until it thickens smoothly.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, vinegar, butter, egg, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, vinegar, butter, egg, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More marshmallow salad recipes

Pineapple 3 See all 9 →

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes