Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Marshmallow Filling
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.
Cook until it reaches a hair-like consistency.
Make the filling
Stir in marshmallows until fully dissolved.
Pour the mixture over the beaten egg whites.
Beat until cool and fluffy.
Spread on angel food cake, either in layers or as a loaf.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup base that sets into a sweet, stable filling.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they give the filling its light, airy structure.
- Marshmallows
- Melt into the syrup, adding sweetness and a soft, chewy body.
The step that matters
Cooking the syrup to a hair-like consistency. Cooking the sugar syrup to the right stage controls how much water remains. Too little cooking leaves a runny filling that will not hold its foam, while overcooking makes it stiff and grainy once cooled.
“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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