Rediscovering “Marshmellows”

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It’s Andy here today. Ann is over in OurLittleCorner telling us how to cope with our crazy times without going crazy.

Campfire Marshmallows cookbook from the 1930s
(Source: Canadian Broadcast Company)

When Ann told me that she was planning to devote today’s OurLittleCorner to comfort food, I couldn’t help but recall that one of the most comforting of comfort foods when I was a kid was a cup of piping hot cocoa with “marshmellows.” It was a breakfast treat my mom would make for me, along with buttered toast (white bread of course) cut into thirds for dunking. Wondering if others had fond memories of such an unhealthy breakfast fare, I went to the web and discovered the discomforting fact that “marshmellow” is the incorrect spelling – it is “marshmallow.”

If I’ve been misspelling “marshmallow” all these years, does that mean that I have been mispronouncing it as well? Should I be chagrinned by the number of times I have said “marshmellow” in my lifetime while others listened to me in quiet amusement?

With a little poking around I found an interactive web site to help me with the pronunciation side of things. It turns out that for us Americans it’s ok to say “marshmellow,” but not ok to spell it that way. The British pronunciation, on the other hand, seems to recognize the “a” in “mallow” but not the “r” in “marsh.” I even went so far as to practice on the interactive web site (see below) and it told me that I did a “good job” with the American pronunciation, which I might add was comforting.

The American pronunciation is on the left and the British on the right. I tried my hand at the American pronunciation and as you can see I did a “good job.” You can try your luck pronouncing “marshmallow” here.

While I was searching the web trying to resolve my marshmallow spelling/pronunciation issues, I learned that the marshmallow is not just a pretty face on the candy shelf. It got its name from the marsh mallow plant (Althaea officinalis) that has a long history of being valued for its medicinal and its culinary virtues. According to candyusa.com , by 2000 BC Egyptians were using sap from the marsh mallow plant to sooth coughs and sore throats and to heal wounds. In addition, when mixed with nuts and honey the marsh mallow sap was considered to be a special treat reserved for the gods and royalty. However, at that time it had no resemblance to the marshmallow that we know today.

Marsh mallow plant (Althaea officinalis), which may be good for coughs, dry mouth, ulcers, skin irritations, wounds, and gastric reflux, according to Medicalnewstoday.com.

By the mid 19th century French confectioners would be whipping dried marsh mallow roots with sugar, water, and egg whites to make what was called Pâte de Guimauve, a spongy-soft dessert. This precursor to today’s marshmallow was time-consuming to make and costly. To keep up with demand candy makers began innovating and, among other things, replaced labor-intensive mallow root sap with gelatin, although sticking with the marshmallow name.

By the 1900s marshmallows were gaining in popularity in the U.S. Marshmallow roasts became quite a middle-class trendy thing to do.

Left: Asbury Park, seen here around 1910, was one of the seaside resorts in New Jersey where ‘marshmallow roasts’ became all the rage in the 1890s.  Right: A Rochester, Ind. turn-of-the-century newspaper article about marshmallow roasts being “the latest thing.” (Source: Canadian Broadcast Company). Note from Ann: don’t you just love the “amuse the ennuied summer girl” reference?!

In 1948 a new method of manufacturing marshmallows (the “extrusion process”) allowed for the mass production of marshmallows and they soon became a common household staple. Any midcentury cookbook worth its salt included recipes calling for marshmallows. I still recall those potluck dinners with the marshmallow-loaded  ambrosia salads and sweet potato casseroles topped with melted marshmallows. And what red-blooded American has not experienced the joy of making s’mores around a campfire?

A recent issue of Southern Living Magazine offers some recipes that took me down marshmallow-memory lane:

Classic sweet potato casserole with marshmallows…perfect for your Thanksgiving dinner

It’s clear that marshmallows remain popular today. CandyUSA.com estimates that Americans currently consume more than 90 million pounds of marshmallows annually. There are about 64 regular-sized marshmallows per pound which means that we consume something like 5.76 billion marshmallows each year – and that doesn’t include marshmallow peeps!

My new-found appreciation for the marshmallow prompted me to try my hand at making my own marshmallows. I’m happy that I did.

My marshmallow batter waiting to be cut into squares.
Homemade marshmallows ready for the hot cocoa.

It was a kick making them and an even bigger kick eating them. In fact, Ann and I were astounded at how much better they are than store-bought ones. And if you decide to make them, be careful – they are addictive. I would venture to say that these homemade “marshmellows,” are indeed “suited for the gods and royalty.” So, I encourage you to make a batch of these marshmallows regardless of how you may spell or pronounce them, brew yourself a hot cup of cocoa, plop in a marshmallow or two, and feel the comfort.

My reward!

Homemade Marshmallows

  • Servings: makes about 90 1-inch squares
  • Print

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten.

  • 3 packages unflavored gelatin
  • 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
  • 1 c light corn syrup
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 T pure vanilla extract
  • Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (I mixed 3/4 C confectioner’s sugar with 1/4 C corn starch).

Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer (about 7-8 minutes). Remove from the heat.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

With a sieve, generously dust an 8 x 12-inch nonmetal baking dish with confectioners’ sugar. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smooth the top, and dust with more confectioners’ sugar. Allow to stand uncovered overnight until it dries out.

Turn the marshmallows onto a board and cut them in squares (I cut them into 1-inch squares). Dust them with more confectioners’ sugar.

The marshmallows can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.

Songs for a Better World

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It’s Ann and Andy here today. OurLittleCorner is closed for Election Day. There’s no new recipe, but we heartily recommend World Peace Cookies.

We’ve heard via the grapevine of a couple of college students who communicate their feelings about each other by sending each other playlists with relevant songs. For our blog today we thought we’d do the same. So here’s our Playlist for Election Day 2024, sorted by day and time. The song titles say it all, so you don’t even need to look at each (fun) video, but fun is what we need today!

*Here’s a Spotify link to these songs on our Election Day playlist (slightly modified for better fluidity).*

To start Tuesday morning: Feeling optimism

  • Morning Has Broken – Cat Stevens (Cat has the perfect 1st name for this day, BTW)
  • Give Peace a Chance – The Peace Choir (love, love, love it!)
  • We Are the World – Lionel Ritchie et al (amazing who all sang in this 1985 performance…Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Daryl Hall, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, and so many more; it makes me tear up.)
  • One Love – Bob Marley (what a great video; the lyrics are so meaningful for today. Be sure to turn on closed captions .)
from the “One Love” video

Middle of the day – Sending out positive vibes

Positive vibes sent your way, Swing States

Late Tuesday afternoon – Mulling over the issues

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning – Hoping…fretting…hoping

  • Whispering Hope – Jo Stafford and Gordon Macrae (my dad and granddad loved to sing this together, so it brings back lots of good and positive memories)

Beyond Wednesday: May this be the grand finale for our playlist and may we see the light – just like Jake and Elwood, The Blues Brothers. Hope we’re crazy and joyous; hope we can celebrate with dancing and singing.

Standing on Two Feet Isn’t Easy: Our Journey to Imperfection

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It’s Andy here today. Ann is over in OurLittleCorner with a 14-second, slightly-risqué video and a bloody good recipe.

A while back I came upon a citation to  “Imperfection: A Natural History“ by Telmo Pievani.   The “Imperfection” in the title piqued my interest because I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert in the imperfection field.  Those who have followed my blogs know that, among other things, I am “directionally challenged,” unable to sustain phone conversations, terrible at following recipes, a dud when it comes to telling our kids about the birds and the bees, and spastic with a fly rod.  Indeed, if there were an Imperfectionist Hall of Fame, I would be a shoo-in.

So, I bought a copy of the Pievani book to see if he had anything new to say about imperfection.  He did in fact say something new (at least to me)- and once I started reading the book I couldn’t put it down.  I became obsessed with it. The imperfection that Pievani discusses is massive and essentially encompasses what it means to be “human.”

This is pretty heady stuff.  But Pievani somehow makes it all very accessible. His book reads like a novel where the protagonist is the bumbling, but lovable, force of “evolutionary selection” and the plot is about the absurdity of human pretentiousness.  Obviously, I can’t do justice to Pievani’s contribution in a brief blog post.  But I’ll share some of his insights about our human “imperfections” that resonated with me .

da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man
According to Pievani,   “despite the beautiful proportions of da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man … our physique is mainly a compendium of mismatches worthy of Homer Simpson.”

Pievani debunks the idea that the evolutionary process  is a force of nature that steadily prods living things toward perfection.  Evolution, he points out, is a hit and miss operation that sometimes leads to moderate success and sometimes to dismal failure (think extinction!).  In this sense, we humans teeter between moderate success and extinction.

What I found fascinating was his suggestion that evolution is at heart a pragmatic process. Our human evolutionary journey is less about the emergence of new and improved body parts than about tinkering with existing parts just enough to get us above the threshold of survival.  The body parts that no longer have a function remain aboard as vestigial organs; who knows when they may become useful down the evolutionary road?

For Pievani, the evolutionary “biggie” for us homo sapiens was when, after an unfathomable length of time swinging in trees and scampering on the ground on all fours, we began walking upright on our own two feet. However great this may have been for human kind, the transition to bipedalism caused all kinds of problems. “Human feet now have to tolerate high stress levels. Our neck, with that heavy, swinging bowling ball balanced on top, becomes a weak point. The abdomen, with all of its internal organs, is exposed to all sorts of trauma.”

Walking upright on our own two feet opened a Pandora’s Box of problems. (Illustration: PBS Nova)

In my view, Pievani’s use of the common head cold to illustrate evolutionary imperfection is classic, albeit gross:

The next time you have a cold and feel the mucus pressing into every orifice of your face, think about the fact that your constipated maxillary sinuses have their drainage channels pointing upward toward the nasal cavities — against gravity! This makes them completely inefficient and easily clogged up with mucus as well as with other slimy substances. This seems like a bad design, but the fact is that in a quadruped, the opening of the maxillary sinuses faces forward, which works well. Yet for former quadrupeds like us, our faces have only recently adopted a vertical position, and this is the result.

Constipated maxillary sinuses working against gravity. (Illustration: US Centers for Disease Control)

After having digested Pievani’s treatise on imperfection I realize that what I considered to be human “imperfection” was no more than a trivial blip in the big picture of imperfections. What does it matter if I can’t cast a fly without tangling my line? At least some fish will be spared and able to continue on with their own evolutionary journey. Not having the fortitude to talk to our kids about sex certainly won’t lead to the extinction of humanity. And when I accidentally used salt instead of sugar when making waffles for house guests, life went on (even for those who politely ate the waffles without gagging).

Source: wishgram.com

So at the end of the day it appears that having a few imperfections here and there is not so bad and may even indicate that we are in harmony with the rhythm of the universe. I’m not sure what that means but when I figure it out I’ll let you know if that’s a good or bad thing.

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