Today is National S’mores Day, set to recognize America’s most popular campfire treat, first made famous in the 1927 edition of the American Girl Scouts Handbook, “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.” The word s’more comes from “some more,” the original name for the sweet, crunchy dessert.
By 1927, few of the world’s marshmallows contained any mallow, at all. Manufacturers had replaced the plant’s root, which takes over a day to dry, with gelatin—commonly made from the dried bones and skins of non-kosher animals—in the late 1800s to speed up manufacturing, creating a conundrum for observant American Jews. According to one halakhic source, the skin of a calf’s stomach was permissible to use for cheese rennet once it had completely dried, and unkosher bones that had been completely dried would not render food unkosher, indicating that typical gelatin—consisting of completely dry skin and bones—might also be kosher. However, most kosher authorities reasoned that since the skin and bones were integral components of the gelatin, they must be kosher in order for the gelatin to be kosher. Thus, most kosher Jews were left adrift, watching longingly as their non-kosher and non-Jewish neighbors munched on s’mores each summer.
However, improvements in the development of fish gelatin in the latter half of the century, coupled with a 21st-century interest in the mallow root to satisfy the needs of vegan consumers, have since made the delicacy available to Jews of all walks of life.
Be sure to share your favorite #koshersmores recipe with us @wisela on Twitter!
—Rabbi Josh Knobel