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Dessert

Marshmallow Candy

A gelatin-based sweet made with sugar, water, and vanilla, set and cut into squares, then rolled in icing sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Marshmallow Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the marshmallow

  1. Dissolve gelatine in cold water.

  2. Add hot water and granulated sugar, then beat until creamy.

  3. Stir in vanilla.

Set and finish

  1. Spread mixture on a flat dish and let it set.

  2. Cut into squares and roll in icing sugar.

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

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

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm, chewy marshmallow structure.
Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and body, helping the mixture hold its whipped texture.
Icing sugar
Coats the outside of the squares so they do not stick together.

The step that matters

Beat until creamy. Beating the hot sugar syrup with the dissolved gelatine traps air bubbles that give marshmallow its light, spongy texture. Under-beating leaves it dense and runny, so it may not set properly.

“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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