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Marshmallow Filling

A sweet filling made from sugar, vinegar, water, marshmallows, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Marshmallow Filling

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Marshmallow Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine white sugar, brown sugar, vinegar, and a little water.

  2. Cook until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage.

  3. Add marshmallows and stir until melted.

Finish the filling

  1. Pour the mixture over the beaten egg whites.

  2. Beat until the mixture is white and fluffy.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

White sugar
Provides sweetness and, with the brown sugar, forms the syrup that sets the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavour to the syrup.
Egg whites
Beaten into a foam that gives the filling its light, airy structure.
Marshmallows
Melt into the hot syrup, adding sweetness and body that helps the filling hold together.
Vinegar
Its acidity helps keep the sugar syrup smooth and stabilises the beaten egg white foam.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to the soft ball stage. If the syrup is undercooked, the filling stays runny and may not hold its shape; if overcooked, it turns hard and grainy. Sugar syrup concentrates as water evaporates, so reaching the right stage sets the texture once it meets the egg whites.

“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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