IL marshmallows are a 4000 year old food beginning in ancient Egypt AND originally they were made from the sap of a mallow plant…that grows in marshes…
Marshmallows
I hate Illinois marshmallows!!
This is the recipe I use to make them: https://redheadedherbalist.com/marshmallow-root-marshmallows/
You can use pretty much any herbal tea in the place of the mallow root to make different flavors. I usually dust mine with coconut powder instead of arrowroot, too. Mallow powder can be found at most health food stores, but you can also forage your own Mallows or cheese weed to make your own if you know what to look for.
There's a native marshmallow plant(althea officinalis) that I grow in my gardens. Trying to get the roots out to make marshmallows is like trying to pull an octopus out of the ground.
It's so worth it. The flowers are quite pretty too.
Screenshotted for later. What zone are you in?
I'm in zone 6! Marshmallows like a lot of water, and will take partial shade. If you have an area that likes to puddle or gets really water logged that's a perfect place tp put them since they'll soak up all the water.
Also, they get VERY large. Like 6-7ft tall and 3-4ft wide on their second year. They do die back to the ground completely in winter though. And they can spread when they're happy so make sure you leave lots of space for them.
They are very easy to grow from seed with some stratifying in the fridge(simulate winter), or get pre-stratified seeds. Good luck and enjoy!
Very interesting, but how did it get its name?
Now I'd like to taste some fresh ancient marshes mallow.
That's what I want to know. What do they taste like?
TIL Illinois Marshmallows are from ancient Egypt.
It's saying modern marshmallows are made with corn syrup, starch, sugar and gelatin but originally it was made with mallow plant.
Now I want to try the mallow version - has anyone here tried them?
Ancient egyptians didn’t speak english
there is a capitalized AND to imply this is a 2 for 1 til deal
Yeah, it was the sap of marsh mallow that the Egyptians used.
Saying that doesn't mean that they think Egyptians used the English word "marshmallow".
Edit but it likely was something like their words for those things, which then got translated again and again and again.
The original connotation didn't reach us. My native language calls the modern sweet "foam candy" (vaahtokarkki)
Not relevant
They also didn't speak German. What point are you trying to make?
Hmmm by the looks of the title how can I trust that you learned it today and not 5 days ago?
The gall of some people smh.
So they didnt always use Pig skin and bones? Damn
First, you take the graham. You stick the chocolate...on the graham. Then, you roast the mallow..
My hopes were up when opening this thread as I hoped it would have been completely plantbased. Too bad.
But when did you learn it???
I don't know!!!
Legit thought the headline was talking about marshmallows in Illinois for a second. Like, we have the same marshmallows as the rest of the country, what's the big deal about Illinois?