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Dessert

Marguerites for Lunches

A sweet treat of marshmallow, pecan, coconut, pineapple mixture baked on saltines.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Marguerites for Lunches

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the topping

  1. Combine orange juice and sugar in a saucepan; boil until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  2. Add marshmallows cut into small pieces and let stand until melted.

  3. Beat egg whites until stiff, then fold into the mixture and mix thoroughly until it stiffens.

  4. Add the chopped pecans, coconut, and candied pineapple; mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on saltines and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until deep straw color.

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. Coconut + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together651 recipes

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

  2. Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Pecans + coconuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Orange + coconuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pecans + pineappletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the topping its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sugar cooked to soft ball stage builds the syrup base and adds sweetness.
Marshmallows
Melted into the syrup, they add body, sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.
Chopped pecans
Add crunch and toasty flavor to the topping.
Saltines
Provide a crisp, sturdy base for the topping.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar and orange juice to the soft ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set properly; undercooked syrup stays runny and overcooked syrup turns hard and brittle once cooled.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pecans, sugar, coconut, pineapple, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pecans, sugar, coconut, pineapple, egg. 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.

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