Did you know the “marshmallow” originated from the plant species Althaea officinalis? The herb is native to Europe, North Africa and Asia, and grows in marshes and other damp areas. It’s not known exactly when marshmallows were invented, but their history goes back as early as 2000 BC. The Ancient Egyptians were said to be the first to make the, and eating them was a privilege strictly reserved for the gods and royalty. What, marshmallows are for royalty, news to me! Well they used the root of the plant to soothe coughs and sore throats. I’m pretty sure the modern confection is not meant for medicinal purposes, although a good ‘smore makes me feel good each time.
By the early to mid 1800’s the marshmallow made its way to France. The French would whip up the sap from the plant, into a fluffy mold. They called it Pate de Guimauve. It was made from whipping dried marshmallow roots with sugar, water, and egg whites. Drying and preparing the root took one to two days before the final product could be produced. As time went on, candy makers began to replace the mallow root with gelatin, which created a stable form of marshmallow. It wasn’t until the 1900s that marshmallows made their way to the United States.
Another milestone in the production of marshmallows was the development of the extrusion process by the Greek American confectioner Alex Doumak, of Doumak Inc., in the late 1940s. In this process, which Doumak patented in 1956,marshmallow mixture is pumped through extrusion heads with numerous ports aligned next to each other which form continuous “ropes” of marshmallow. This invention allowed marshmallows to be manufactured in a fully automated way and gives us the familiar cylindrical shape of today’s marshmallow.
It was around 1920 when the Graham Cracker Sandwich appeared in a cookbook. Popular among the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. In 1927, a recipe for “Some More” was published in “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.”
It wasn’t until 1938 that “S’Mores” appeared in conjunction with the recipe in a publication aimed at summer camps.
It wasn’t until I took pastry classes, that I even realized I could make these at home! Ok, so they may not be the perfect shape you find in the bag, but they taste so much better scratch made. They are fluffy and squishy all at the same time. I usually make them with sugar, water, corn syrup and gelatin and then whatever flavor I want to make them. But this time around, I was running low on corn syrup, and had a lot of honey on hand. So I replaced the corn syrup with honey and did not add any extra flavor. WOW! I mean WOW, the flavor of the honey is amazing. I feel though, that if you want specific flavor marshmallows, corn syrup is the better option. If you know of any other substitutes, please do share!
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