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Dessert

Marguerites for Lunches

A baked orange-flavored cookie made with marshmallows, egg whites, pecans, coconut, candied pineapple, and saltines.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Marguerites for Lunches

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the orange juice and sugar; boil until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  2. Add the marshmallows and let them melt into the mixture.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the mixture until well combined.

  4. Stir in the pecans, coconut, and candied pineapple.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on the saltines and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until deep straw color.

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. Coconut + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together651 recipes

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

  2. Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Pecans + coconuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Orange + coconuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pecans + pineappletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped until stiff, they lighten the mixture and give it an airy, fluffy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, when boiled with the juice, thickens it toward a soft, chewy set.
Marshmallows
Melt into the syrup, adding sweetness, body and a soft, sticky texture.
Pecans
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft filling.

The step that matters

Boil the orange juice and sugar to the soft ball stage. Boiling concentrates the sugar so the syrup sets to the intended soft, chewy texture when cooled. Undercooked syrup stays runny, while overcooked syrup turns firm and brittle.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pecans, sugar, coconut, pineapple, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pecans, sugar, coconut, pineapple, egg. 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.

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