Marshmallow Creme

**Marshmallow creme** (also called **marshmallow fluff**, **marshmallow stuff**, **marshmallow spread**, or **marshmallow paste**) is a marshmallow confectionery spread similar in flavor, but not texture, to regular solid marshmallow. One brand of marshmallow creme is **Marshmallow Fluff**, which is used to make the New England classic comfort food, the fluffernutter sandwich, which debuted in 1918 in Massachusetts, just a year after marshmallow creme was invented.

Fluff is manufactured by Durkee-Mower, Inc.; its ingredients include corn syrup, sugar syrup, vanilla flavor, and egg whites.

## History

Many late-19th-century "marshmallow paste" recipes produced solid foods. The earliest mention of marshmallow creme in an American cookbook is from *Fannie Farmer's Boston School Cookbook*, printed in 1896. However, the author does not give a recipe for marshmallow cream in this book, instead giving a recipe for marshmallow paste in the cake filling section. In 1902, *Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book* by Sarah Tyson Rorer describes her recipe for "marshmallow filling".

Around the beginning of the 20th century, Somerville, Massachusetts, resident and inventor of the product Archibald Query started selling his version door-to-door. He soon afterward sold the recipe to two candy makers in Lynn, Massachusetts, H. Allen Durkee and Fred Mower, for $500. The product first hit market shelves in cans as Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff in 1917. The first two words were dropped soon after the packaging changed to a glass jar in the 1940s. Today, the Durkee-Mower company is one of only three companies in North America to produce marshmallow creme, the other products being Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme and Solo Marshmallow Creme.

"Fluff" continues as a regional tradition in the Northeastern United States. One popular use is in the Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter sandwich: fluffernutter. Also, the container has a "no-fail" recipe for chocolate fudge printed on the side.

Since at least 2006, the city of Somerville has celebrated Query's original creation of Fluff with an annual festival in Union Square titled *What the Fluff?*. Typical activities at the festival have included a science fair, gallery show, cooking contests, and carnival games such as a bean-bag toss, all themed around Marshmallow Fluff. In 2011, actress Susan Olsen, most famous for portraying Cindy Brady on the *Brady Bunch*, attended the festival, where she sold her marshmallow fluff-inspired art.

According to a 2006 *Boston Globe* article, Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Barrios proposed a restriction on the number of weekly servings of Marshmallow Fluff (fluffernutter) sandwiches in the form of an amendment to a bill that will limit "junk food" in schools. The proposal was later dropped. Also in 2006, State Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein planned to file a bill that would make the Fluffernutter the official sandwich of Massachusetts.

## Usage in Arabic cuisine

Marshmallow creme is also a traditional confection in Arabic cuisine, where it is commonly referred to as soapwort meringue (*natef*). The original recipe is based on soapwort (roots of *Saponaria officinalis*) or roots of the marshmallow plant, but modern commercial varieties are nearly identical to marshmallow creme. It was mentioned in a tenth-century Arabic cookbook, *Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ* ('The Book of Dishes') by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq.