No Fire S’mores

tea light?

Yeah, roasting on a canister stove just doesn't work well.

It's not quite the same, but if you heat the marshmallows indirectly they can get gooey enough to smoosh. I've had some success with placing a graham cracker in the bottom of a pan with the marshmallows on top of that (mini's work best) and then covering it for a bit and heating until the marshmallows get a little soft. It's hard to time it so the cracker doesn't get too hot and burn. then you smoosh the chocolate and top cracker down to complete the sandwich. But I doubt this will satisfy a purist such as yourself!

It can be done on a canister stove, with VERY GREAT care. I make raisin toast and toasted muffins this way sometimes, on day walks.

Get some fine stainless steel mesh: a 2 mm pitch of 0.5 mm wire is good. Rig it up somehow in the flame so it gets cherry red. Hang the raisin bread or muffin nearby – maybe 1" away, so the IR radiation does the toasting. This would also work with marshmallows.

The key here is converting the blue gas flame at 1,500 C to a good source of IR radiation. The IR radiation does the toasting.

CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION
If the mesh is placed horizontal, half the IR radiation will beam down onto the stove and canister. This can melt the stove and/or heat the canister to explosion temperature. Be VERY VERY careful, and use a radiation shield between the burner and the canister. Pitching the mesh vertically will radiate less back onto the stove.
Yes, I did partially melt one stove once!

Cheers

del

Having done S'mores indoors under oven broiler, and scorched hot dogs with a Solar Death Ray, I'm going to suggest an aluminum-foil parabola focusing IR from a pot-less Jetboil to the marshmallow located to the side. I might try that out tomorrow as a Father-daughter science experiment.

Hi Rick

> OK with your stove?
Can't tell, because I can't see from the photo what the pan really looks like. Is it just the obvious very coarse mesh supporting the sausages, or is there a plate underneath which is getting red hot? Do you have a 'home page' for the thing?

If there is a plate getting red hot, then there is going to be a LOT of heat radiating downwards, making the stove very hot. That is never good. If so, I would recommend against it.

Just because some factory in China is selling the thing does NOT mean it is safe to use. I tested a Chinese copy of the Whisperlite once. They had made just one small mod to the heat shield under the burner, to make it easier to assemble the burner. The damn thing nearly blew up in under one minute – entirely because of that mod. If they had actually tested it they might never have tried to sell it – maybe. Frightening stuff.

Cheers

I've roasted many a marshmallow for the boys over a simple canister stove, such as a Primus or a SnowPeak. You need one you can dial down to a very, very low flame. Is it going to be perfect? No. It does taste pretty good though.

del

> The bottom piece is the fine steel mesh diffuser.
Yeah, that would work. Stove is going to get very hot though.
And with that amount of red heat, you may need to put some distance between the mesh and whatever!

Cheers

Thanks All!

Some pretty solid advice Roger. I'm just not sure I can take s'more advice from an Aussie. Particularly in SI units! I am pretty sure all my marshmallows are manufactured to imperial dimensions. I'll have to hum Yankee Doodle as I try out the screen.

Actually I am surprised you even know what a marshmallow is. I thought it was a distinctly American delicacy.

David, so are you thinking a big Al hood? I can't imagine I could do that effectively enough to actually focus the IR radiation

> Actually I am surprised you even know what a marshmallow is.
Ha! The ignorance of some Americans… :-)
Since you raised the subject:
Wikipedia:
'Marshmallow probably came first into being as a medicinal substance, since the mucilaginous extracts come from the root of the marshmallow plant, Althaea officinalis, which were used as a remedy for sore throats. Concoctions of other parts of the marshmallow plant had medical purposes as well.[2] The root has been used since Egyptian antiquity in a honey-sweetened confection useful in the treatment of sore throat.[1] The later French version of the recipe, called pâte de guimauve (or "guimauve" for short), included an egg white meringue and was often flavored with rose water.'
It goes on…
and also mentions toasting and s'mores.

They also go well in hot chocolate.

Cheers

Well, in my defense, when I was in High School I stayed with a family in Germany for two weeks. I brought my host brother marshmallows because they don't have them there. He had certainly never heard of them. When we were sitting around a bonfire roasting bread, he was pretty incredulous when I said we could roast marshmallows. Based on that experience I thought marshmallows were distinctly American.

The concept of modern marshmallows is very much American. And no, modern US marshmallows have NONE of the original ingredients. They are not even made with eggs anymore. Corn syrup, honey or maple syrup that is a hot syrup blended with gelatin + and then beaten in a stand mixer for 10 minutes = marshmallows.

There are some s'mores kits that toast the marshmallows over a chafing dish so maybe just bring a small can of sterno?

You need an evil older child or evil adult like myself teach your kid how to moosh up marshmallows with your fingers. We had so much fun doing that as kids. Just take a marshmallow and start kneading it between your thumbs and forefingers. It soon turns into a delicious gooey mess you can then lick off your fingers or perhaps put on a graham cracker.