• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CooksInfo

  • Home
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Recipes
  • Food Calendar
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar
×
Home » Dishes » Desserts » Marshmallows

Marshmallows

Marshmallows are a light, spongy candy made of gelatin, sugar, egg white, corn syrup, vanilla flavouring. They used to just be white and vanilla-flavoured, but now come in many colours and flavours.

To make them, liquid, whipped marshmallow is extruded from tubes in long pipe shapes, and allowed to set. The long shapes are then dusted with a dusting starch to reduce sticking when being cut. The long shapes are then cut into individual-sized marshmallows, tumbled to get excess dusting starch off, then packaged.

Marshmallows have been a traditional American topping for sweet potatoes since the 1920s.

Substitutes

Marshmallow Cream Spread

Equivalents

10 large Marshmallows = 3 oz = 85g

20 large Marshmallows = 6 oz = 170g
30 large Marshmallows = 9 oz = 250g
40 large Marshmallows = 12 oz = 350g
1 large Marshmallow = 10 miniature Marshmallows
10 large Marshmallows = 1 cup miniature Marshmallows
1 10oz bag miniature Marshmallows = 2 cups miniature Marshmallows
1 large Marshmallow = 1 tablespoon Marshmallow Cream
32 large Marshmallows = 7.5 oz (200g) Marshmallow Cream
5 ½ dozen large Marshmallows=16 oz (450g) Marshmallow Cream

To make approx 2 cups of Marshmallow Cream, melt 8 oz (250g) of Marshmallows with 2 tablespoon light corn syrup

Storage Hints

Marshmallows can dry out. For long-term storage, freeze in a sealed plastic bag.

History Notes

Marshmallows were originally made as a “medicine” that incorporated juice from the roots of mallow plants for the medicinal factors it was believed to have in folk medicine.

Even though we now think of Marshmallows as American, it was actually the French and British who made them first. The French still make something closer to the original (though without the root) called Pâte de Guimauve. The English whipped the juice from the root, which is viscous or “mucilaginous”, and turned it into more of a candy in the mid 1800s. By the end of the 1800s, commercial gelatin was available, and they switched to using that instead for the candy.

Today, mallow juice is no longer believed to have any medicinal purpose, and gelatin is used instead to thicken Marshmallows.

The typical cylindrical shape of Marshmallows is owing to an extrusion process developed by a man named Alex Doumakes in 1948. His family had started a marshmallow making business called Doumak, Inc., in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, in 1917. The company today makes the Campfire brand of marshmallows. Doumakes’ invention allowed liquid marshmallow to be extruded in long pipe shapes through tubes, and then later cut into equal pieces.

Sources

The Manufacturer US. Doumak, Inc., How sweet it is. Retrieved August 2011 from http://www.themanufacturer.com/us/profile/5279/Doumak,_Inc.

Other names

French: Guimauve
Spanish: Malvavisco
Japanese: Mashimaro

This page first published: Sep 2, 2002 · Updated: Jun 21, 2018.

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · Information on this site is Copyright © 2023· Feel free to cite correctly, but copying whole pages for your website is content theft and will be DCMA'd.

Tagged With: American Food, Mallow

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Skylar! This is a fake profile talking about how I switched to a paleo diet and it helped my eczema and I grew 4″. Trust me, I’m an online doctor.

More about me →

Popular

  • E.D. Smith Pumpkin Purée
    E.D. Smith recipe for pumpkin pie
  • Libby's Pumpkin Pie
    Libby’s recipe for pumpkin pie
  • Pie crust
    Pie Crust Recipe
  • Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham
    Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham

You can duplicate your homepage’s trending recipes section in the sidebar to reinforce the internal linking.

We no longer recommend using a search bar, newsletter form or category drop-down menu in the sidebar. See the Modern Sidebar post for details.

If the block editor is not narrower than usual, simply save the page and refresh it.

Search

    Today is

  • International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
    Photo of wasted produce
  • Michaelmas Day
    Goose dinner
  • Devil Spits Day
  • Coffee Day
    Cup of coffee with coffee beans on the side

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • About this site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright enforced!
  • Terms & Conditions

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Site

  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · The text on this site is © Copyright.