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Dessert

Marshmallow Cream

A light, gelatinous dessert made with egg whites, sugar, vanilla, almond extract, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Marshmallow Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare gelatine

  1. Dissolve gelatine in cold and hot water.

  2. Let the mixture cool but not congeal.

Whip and flavour

  1. Beat egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Gradually add sugar and gelatine mixture to the egg whites while beating.

  3. Mix in vanilla and almond extracts.

  4. Fold in walnut meats.

Mould and serve

  1. Mould the mixture.

  2. Serve in slices with whipped cream.

  3. Reserve part of the mixture before adding walnuts.

  4. Color the reserved portion.

  5. Layer the colored portion in the mould.

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. Almond + walnuttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the marshmallow cream its light, airy structure.
Gelatine
Sets the whipped mixture so it holds its shape when moulded and sliced.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
Walnut meats
Add crunchy texture and a nutty flavour to the soft cream.
Vanilla extract
Adds a warm, rounded aroma to the mixture.
Almond extract
Adds a distinct almond aroma that complements the walnuts.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool but not congeal. Gelatine must be cool enough not to melt or deflate the whipped egg white foam when added, but still liquid so it blends in smoothly. If it sets early, it forms lumps and the cream loses its airy lightness.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, vanilla, almond, meat):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vanilla, almond, meat. 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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