Marshmallows Were Originally Made From The Marshmallow Plant

Marshmallows Were Originally Made From The Marshmallow Plant

Food Fact: Marshmallows date back to as early as 2000 BC and were considered a delicacy deemed worthy only for gods and royalty. During those times, Egyptians made individual marshmallows by hand by extracting sap from a mallow plant and mixing it with nuts and honey. This delicious sweet developed a new form when, in the 1800s, candy makers in France took the sap from marshmallow plants and combined it with egg whites and sugar. The mixture was whipped by hand and took the form of the marshmallow we all know today. Later, candy makers replaced the sap taken from the marshmallow plant with gelatin, which enabled the marshmallow mixture to maintain its form and reduced the labor intensive process of extracting the sap from the mallow plant. The gelatin was combined with corn syrup, starch, sugar, gelatin, and water to create the fluffy texture of the marshmallow.