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Marshmallow Frosting

A frosting made by melting marshmallows with milk or water and folding into beaten egg whites with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Break the marshmallows into pieces.

  2. Add milk or water and place in a double boiler over boiling water.

  3. Stir until melted.

  4. Remove from heat and while hot, pour into the well-beaten egg whites.

  5. Add vanilla and mix well.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 27,347 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
Melt into a sweet, glossy base that sets the frosting's body as it cools.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
Milk or water
Loosens the melting marshmallows so they combine smoothly without scorching.

The step that matters

Pour the marshmallow while hot into the beaten egg whites. Hot melted marshmallow must go into well-beaten whites so it blends smoothly and stays fluid. If it cools first, it thickens and can streak or seize, leaving the frosting lumpy and less airy.

“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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