The Savvy Marketing That Put Marshmallows on Your Sweet Potato Casserole

In 1895, Joseph Demerath came up with a way to manufacture marshmallows in mass quantities, which made them affordable outside the upper class for the first time. This kicked off a marshmallow craze that lasted for the next twenty years or so -that is, if it ever went away. The Bunte Brothers were the first food producer to give away booklets of recipes to market marshmallows, and the custom spread to other marshmallow manufacturers who thought up hundreds of ways to use them in everyday cooking -including using them on sweet potatoes. Why this particular recipe became so popular involves an explanation of how sweet potatoes were prepared before marshmallows were available, which you'll find at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Flickr user Alexis Lamster)