Name: Marshmallow Cream
Ingredients: 4 lb fresh marshmallows, cut into 1-inch squares; ⅓ lb nut meats (almonds, pecans, walnuts), ground; 1 egg white, whipped to stiff froth; Malaga grapes, seeded; shredded pineapple (canned preferred) or maraschino cherries, finely chopped; whipped cream, for serving

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

4 lb fresh marshmallows, cut into 1-inch squares
⅓ lb nut meats (almonds, pecans, walnuts), ground
1 egg white, whipped to stiff froth
Malaga grapes, seeded
shredded pineapple (canned preferred) or maraschino cherries, finely chopped
whipped cream, for serving

Directions

Make the mixture

In a bowl, mix marshmallows with ground nuts and the whipped egg white.

Layer and serve

Layer the mixture in a shallow glass bowl, starting with marshmallows, then grapes, followed by another layer of marshmallows and nuts.
Top with shredded pineapple or chopped cherries.
Chill on ice before serving with whipped cream on the side.

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.

Almond + walnuttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together993 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Grape + pineappletop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together709 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Pecans + walnuttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together634 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Almond + pecanstop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together431 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Walnut + grapetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,427 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Marshmallows: Melt softly and bind with the nuts and egg white to form a creamy, sweet body.
Nut meats: Add body, texture and a toasty, slightly crunchy contrast to the soft marshmallow.
Egg white: Whipped to a stiff froth, it adds airy lightness to the mixture.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, almond, pecans, walnut, egg, grape, cream):

Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Vanillafits better
Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, almond, pecans, walnut, egg, grape, 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.