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Dessert

Marshmallow Icing

A sweet icing made from sugar, milk, marshmallows, hot water, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Heat sugar and milk slowly, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes.

Melt the marshmallows

  1. Break marshmallows into pieces and place them in the top of a double boiler.

  2. Add hot water and heat until smooth.

  3. Add the syrup, stirring constantly.

Finish and spread

  1. Beat until cool.

  2. Add vanilla.

  3. Spread on cake.

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

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

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and forms the body of the syrup.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the syrup.
Marshmallows
Melt to give the icing a smooth, sticky, spreadable body.
Vanilla
Adds aroma to the finished icing.

The step that matters

Add the syrup, stirring constantly. Hot syrup poured into melted marshmallow can clump or separate if it is not stirred. Constant stirring blends the two evenly, keeping the icing smooth.

“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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