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Marshmallow Filling
pound marshmallows 1 egg white Melt marshmallows in top of double boiler; when liquefied, pour on to the beaten white, beat until thick.
Two ingredients and one sentence of instruction, which leaves a fair amount to work out. The hinge is temperature: the marshmallow syrup has to be poured hot and in a thin stream, or it seizes into threads instead of folding into the white.
- The missing fractionThe line reads "pound marshmallows," with a fraction apparently lost from the original setting; there is no way to tell from the page whether it was a half pound or a full one. A full pound to a single egg white would give a very stiff, very sweet filling; a half pound (8 oz, roughly 4 to 5 cups of miniatures) is the easier ratio to work with.
- Marshmallows have changedAt the time of this book marshmallows were a confectioner's product, sold loose by the pound and dusted to stop them sticking; they are generally described as denser and less aerated than a modern bagged marshmallow. Weigh rather than measure by volume, and mini marshmallows melt more evenly than large ones.
- Melting without a skinUse the double boiler as directed and keep the water at a bare simmer, not a boil. A tablespoon or two of water in with the marshmallows keeps them from scorching at the edges and going grainy. Stir only occasionally.
- Beat the white firstThe white should already be at stiff peaks before the syrup arrives. Pour the liquefied marshmallow down the side of the bowl in a thin stream with the mixer running, exactly as for an Italian meringue.
- "Beat until thick"Expect roughly five to eight minutes in a stand mixer, until the bowl is only just warm to the touch. Stop there; prolonged beating once it has cooled does the filling no favours.
- Raw egg whiteThe hot syrup warms the white but does not reliably bring it to a safe temperature, since the filling is never cooked afterwards. Use pasteurized whites, sold in cartons, if serving anyone who should avoid raw egg.
- Yield and useEnough to fill and lightly top one two-layer 8- or 9-inch cake, though the volume depends on how much air is beaten in. It sets to a tacky, sliceable marshmallow as it cools and is far easier to spread while still warm.
Lowney's Cook Book was compiled by Maria Willett Howard for the Walter M. Lowney Company, a Boston chocolate manufacturer, and like other maker-sponsored cookbooks of the period it exists to sell an ingredient. This filling is a small piece of evidence about the marshmallow itself: by 1907 it was a shop-bought commodity, bought by the pound, rather than something a cook made. The name goes back to the marsh mallow plant, Althaea officinalis, whose root mucilage was whipped with sugar and egg white in nineteenth-century French confectionery; gelatin and gum arabic had displaced the root well before this book was printed, leaving only the name. Pouring hot syrup onto beaten white is the same technique as boiled frosting, and this recipe is essentially a shortcut to it.