marshmallows

A Brief History of Marshmallows: Research Paper What is your favorite way to eat a marshmallow? Melted in hot chocolate after a long cold day? Or roasted and squished between a slab of chocolate and graham crackers while you are sitting around a campfire? However you like them, marshmallows are an unusual type of sweet treat—squishy, sticky, and a hint chewy, with a melting point that is just a bit above body temperature, so that they start to change from a solid to more liquid state as soon as they reach the heat of your mouth, or the warmth of your hot chocolate or a campfire! They are also an ancient creation, originally coming from a tall marshmallow plant (Althaea officinalis) that grows in swampy fields and has a soft, spongy root. The root contains mucilage, a thick, gluey substance produced by some plants and microscopic animals to help with water and food storage, and seed growth. Some cultures used the marshmallow plant to make candy, while others used it to make medicine. The ancient Egyptians, for example, dried the root and mixed it with honey to make marshmallow treats, but the early French thought the root looked like lung tissue, and tested it by making medicine out of its gooey juice to soothe sore throats. Today's modern marshmallows contain no parts of the marshmallow plant because the plant is considered a medicinal herb. Today, marshmallows are primarily a mix of four ingredients: sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin. The gelatin replaces the thick, gluey substance that originally came from the marshmallow plant. The sugar and corn syrup are heated together with a little water to make a solution. The ingredients are warmed and brought to a boil, which turn it into syrup. Because of the sugar in the mixture, the boiling point of the solution becomes higher than the boiling point of water by itself. The greater the amount of sugar in water, the higher its boiling point. As the mix boils, water evaporates, and the solution becomes even more