What is a Marshmallow made of?
What is a Marshmallow made of?
Sugar syrup whipped full of air and held there by gelatin, which comes from animal collagen.
The name is a fossil. The original confection was made from the mucilage of the marsh mallow plant, Althaea officinalis, whipped with sugar and egg white and sold as a throat remedy; no marsh mallow has been involved since the late nineteenth century, when gelatin replaced it. Gelatin is hydrolysed collagen extracted from skin and bone, mostly pork and beef, which is why marshmallows are not vegetarian and why kosher and halal versions have to use fish gelatin or a plant gum. Toasting works because the sugar at the surface caramelises and the gelatin network softens at the same time, giving a crisp shell around a molten centre.
Component by component
| Part | Material | Why that material |
|---|---|---|
| foam | air, roughly half the volume | The air is the product; everything else exists to trap it and hold the shape once it stops being whipped. |
| stabiliser | gelatin, from boiled pig skin or cattle hide | Gelatin sets into a gel just below room temperature and melts just above body temperature, which is exactly the melt-in-the-mouth window. |
| sweetener | sucrose with glucose syrup or invert sugar | The syrup stops the sucrose crystallising, which would turn the foam gritty within a day. |
| dusting | corn starch and icing sugar | The cut faces are sticky; a dry powder stops the pieces welding back into a block in the bag. |
| vegetarian version | agar, carrageenan or whipped egg white in place of gelatin | Plant gels set and melt at different temperatures, which is why vegetarian marshmallows toast and squash differently. |
Other food and drink objects
- Chewing gum A base of synthetic rubber, wax and resin that you never swallow, carrying sweetener and flavour that you do.
- Chocolate Ground cocoa solids and cocoa butter with sugar, plus a trace of lecithin — the fat does the rest.
- Gelatin Collagen from animal skin and bone, broken down with acid or alkali and dried. There is no plant version.
- Cheese Milk protein clotted by an enzyme, drained of whey and salted — four ingredients and a lot of time.
- Bread Flour, water, yeast and salt — plus, in most factory loaves, enzymes, emulsifiers and a mould inhibitor.
- Potato chips (crisps) Thin potato slices fried in vegetable oil, seasoned with a maltodextrin-carried flavour powder, packed in nitrogen.
- Tofu Soy milk curdled with a mineral salt and pressed — cheese-making, with soybeans instead of milk.
Common questions
- What is a Marshmallow made of?
- Sugar syrup whipped full of air and held there by gelatin, which comes from animal collagen.
- What is the foam of a Marshmallow made of?
- Air, roughly half the volume. The air is the product; everything else exists to trap it and hold the shape once it stops being whipped.
- What is the stabiliser of a Marshmallow made of?
- Gelatin, from boiled pig skin or cattle hide. Gelatin sets into a gel just below room temperature and melts just above body temperature, which is exactly the melt-in-the-mouth window.
Related pages
- Chewing gum A base of synthetic rubber, wax and resin that you never swallow, carrying sweetener and flavour that you do.
- Chocolate Ground cocoa solids and cocoa butter with sugar, plus a trace of lecithin — the fat does the rest.
- Gelatin Collagen from animal skin and bone, broken down with acid or alkali and dried. There is no plant version.
- Cheese Milk protein clotted by an enzyme, drained of whey and salted — four ingredients and a lot of time.
- Bread Flour, water, yeast and salt — plus, in most factory loaves, enzymes, emulsifiers and a mould inhibitor.
- Potato chips (crisps) Thin potato slices fried in vegetable oil, seasoned with a maltodextrin-carried flavour powder, packed in nitrogen.
- Tofu Soy milk curdled with a mineral salt and pressed — cheese-making, with soybeans instead of milk.
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Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place