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Cocoanut Marshmallows
2 cups sugar 1/2 cup corn sirup 1/2 cup hot water 4 tablespoons powdered gelatine 4 tablespoons cold water 2 eggs-whites only 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon cornstarch Dromedary Cocoanut Put sugar, sirup and hot water into a saucepan, and stir until sugar is dissolved; bring to boiling point and boil without stirring to 240° F., or until the mixture forms a soft ball when tested in cold water. Remove from fire, add gelatine dissolved in cold water, and beat until white. Add whites of eggs beaten until stiff and beat until thick. Then add vanilla and cornstarch, pour into a pan nine inches square that has been dusted with confectioners' sugar, and sift confectioners' sugar over the top. Let stand in a cool place over night.
Cut into squares with a silver knife that is kept constantly moist, being dipped into lukewarm water. Put a few marshmallows at a time into a strainer, hold in steam from boiling water just long enough to make sticky and roll in plenty of Dromedary Cocoanut. Pack in boxes.
A standard gelatine marshmallow of the branded-booklet era, with a coconut coating applied by steam rather than by syrup. Two things need attention before you start: the water given for blooming the gelatine, and the raw egg whites.
- Blooming the gelatineFour tablespoons of powdered gelatine is a large amount, roughly five modern 1/4-oz envelopes, and four tablespoons of cold water will not wet it evenly. Bloom it in at least 1/2 cup of cold water for five minutes, then beat it into the hot syrup as directed.
- The raw whitesThe whites are beaten stiff and folded into a syrup that has already been whipped pale and cooled somewhat, so they are never heated. Use pasteurized whites, or beat the 240F syrup directly into the whites as modern marshmallow method does, then add the gelatine.
- 240F means 240FThe soft-ball test in cold water is the period fallback; a digital thermometer is more reliable. Below about 235F the marshmallows will not set firm enough to cut, above 245F they turn tough.
- Corn sirupLight corn syrup. Its job is to prevent the sugar crystallizing, so do not substitute honey or maple syrup, which behave differently and will flavor the candy.
- Dromedary CocoanutThe brand's packaged shredded coconut. Any fine-shred desiccated coconut works; sweetened flake gives a much sweeter, coarser coating.
- The cornstarchA tablespoon stirred into the finished mass helps absorb surface moisture. The pan dusting is confectioners' sugar alone here, though a half-and-half mix of confectioners' sugar and cornstarch releases more cleanly.
- The silver knifeSilver was routinely specified in period recipes; the explanation usually given is that carbon steel blades of the day discolored sugar work. Any stainless blade will do; keeping it wet with lukewarm water is the part that matters.
- Steaming before rollingA second or two over the steam is enough to tack the surface. Longer and the squares slump and the sugar dusting dissolves into syrup.
- YieldA nine-inch square pan cut into one-inch squares gives about 81 marshmallows. Pack in a tin, layered with waxed paper.
Dromedary was the brand name of the Hills Brothers Company of New York, best known for dates and for packaged shredded coconut, and this booklet is one of the promotional recipe pamphlets such firms distributed by the hundred thousand in the early twentieth century to create household demand for a branded pantry staple. The candy itself marks a transition: marshmallows took their name from the mucilage of the marsh mallow root, Althaea officinalis, which confectioners once whipped with sugar and egg white, but by the late 1800s cheap powdered gelatine had displaced the root entirely and the name survived only as a description of texture. Rolling the finished squares in coconut was both a garnish and a practical fix, since a gelatine marshmallow left bare goes tacky in humid air; here it also happened to sell coconut.