Name: Marshmallow Pie
Ingredients: 1-2 lbs marshmallows; ½ cup milk; 1 cup heavy cream, whipped; 10 graham crackers

Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Marshmallow Pie

Ingredients

1-2 lbs marshmallows
½ cup milk
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
10 graham crackers

Directions

Prepare the filling

Melt marshmallows and milk in a double boiler and cool.
Fold in the whipped cream.

Assemble and chill

Crush the graham crackers with a rolling pin.
Sprinkle the crumbs over the bottom and sides of a pie plate.
Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pie plate and sprinkle remaining crumbs on top.
Refrigerate or cool before serving.

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.

Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Marshmallows: Melted to form a sweet, soft base that sets as the filling cools.
Heavy cream: Whipped and folded in to add lightness and a creamy, airy texture.
Graham crackers: Crushed into crumbs that form a crisp, sweet crust.

“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.