Ancient marshmallows

I am obsessed with trying to recreate the precursor to our modern treat. It is said the Egyptians were the first to take the mallow root sweeten it with honey and turn it into a confection. It does not seem as though any sort of recipes exist and I can't find anyone online who has experimented without the use of some additional ingredients, notably gelatin and gum Arabic. I would like to try to make it as true to the original as possible, but since we're really just guessing what the original was, I guess I'd like to keep it as simple and few ingredients as possible, the goal being to make a confection that perhaps slightly resembles what we call marshmallows today.

My current thoughts involve boiling the mallow root, reducing the liquid, adding honey, possibly vanilla, whipping some eggs and folding in the warm syrup. Other than texture wise/not setting up I don't see how this combo could be bad, but we'll see.

Oh Molly - you are after my own heart! I love to experiment with traditional foods, and confectionery is always fun! I'm still trying to grow marshmallow successfully - I do have some seedlings now! I'll follow your successes (or otherwise!) and hopefully be able to copy you in time.

I did find some vegan recipes using seaweed from taste of home, also aquafava from simplevegan

from simpleveganblog

I wonder whether the original was something like loucom or turkish delight, which again is often made with gelatine these days - I wonder what they would have used for that originally as cornflour is a new world grain...?

edit -spelling!

Nancy Reading wrote: I'm still trying to grow marshmallow successfully - I do have some seedlings now! I'll follow your successes (or otherwise!) and hopefully be able to copy you in time.

That's exciting!

Nancy Reading wrote:I did find some vegan recipes using seaweed from taste of home, also aquafava from simplevegan

These are good alternatives.  But I do look forward to hearing if you're able to make marshmallows from marsh mallow (Athaea officinalis) root!

Nancy Reading wrote: I wonder whether the original was something like loucom or turkish delight, which again is often made with gelatine these days

There is quite a debate, but early surviving recipes seem to have been gelled with fruit pectin & sugar, and mastic gum was also used for flavour as well as consistency later on.  

Nancy Reading wrote: - I wonder what they would have used for that originally as cornflour is a new world grain...?

'Corn' is a very old word indeed, which means roughly, cereal grain that is a regional staple of a country. As far as I can tell, refined culinary starch powder ('cornflour') can be made from various regionally common plants, including wheat or maize ('the corn of the New World', see also 'barleycorn').  So people who need gluten-free cornflour need to check carefully!

It's said that Hacı Bekir opened a confectionery shop in Constantinople in 1777 and sold loukum at that time.  Pure culinary starch made from maize was patented by John Polson of Brown & Polson in 1854 as 'Patented Corn Flour', so over 80 years later. All very interesting!

Well, I harvested probably a lb or 2 of mallow roots, started cleaning them, then my mother stopped by and mentioned maybe I shouldn't have harvested the ones by the old chicken coop that has been dropping lead paint chips for the past 80 years. Oops. They were beautiful, large roots too, so I'll have to go out and find some more.