I have both a math problem and a kitchen conundrum.

What do you do with 25 marshmallows?

Look, I'm not the world's best chef.  But there are plenty of things I can cook.  Although, to be perfectly honest, "cook" may be a bit generous of a term when it comes to making Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats.

But make them, I can, and make them, I do.

Sadly, the people who make marshmallows, the fine folks at Jet-Puffed, appear to have taken math lessons from the same people who taught the hot dog makers and the hot dog bun companies how to put unequal amounts of product in their respective packages, thereby ensuring enough annual
bun waste to feed a second world country.

You see, after you use the 40 marshmallows required by the traditional Kellogg's recipe, you're left with, on average, about 25 marshmallows for which there is no discernable use.

I mean, sure, you might think they're fun to snack on, but let me tell you from experience that once you reach about, say, marshmallow number 17, it ain't that great an idea.

No, the real problem here is the lack of any "ratio" guidelines.  I mean, the recipe calls for six cups of Rice Krispies, 40 marshmallows, and 3 tablespoons of butter, right?  Sadly, those are three different measurement units.  And I don’t know how many "tablespoons" are in a "marshmallow."

But I did pass college-level  "Math For People Who Are Stupid About Math."  (My about-to-be-a-Doctor Mom took the class, as well.  Just who ended up with the better grade is still a matter of some semantic dispute.)  And I do remember the concept of "common denominators."  Heck, I’m reminded of it each day when my boss at the TV show says, "Be sure to write to the lowest
. . ."(But that, too, is a tale for another time.)

So I did some research.  As it turns out,"cups" is our best bet.

You see, on the marshmallow package, there's also a recipe for "Mallow Topped Sweet Potatoes."  But this is very important:  Ignore it.  It has an ugly math error.  It says 15 Jet-Puffed marshmallows equal 3 cups.  That's got to be wrong --because on the package just below that, it clearly states the much more reasonable "1/2 cup = 5 marshmallows."  That sounds and feels much more right, and using the "cup" as our basis of calculation, we find the following:

25 marshmallows = 2.5 cups of marshmallow.

Original recipe calls for 4 cups (40 marshmallows).

Therefore, we must reduce all ingredients, in cups, by a factor of 0.625.

6 cups of Rice Krispies becomes 3.75 cups – 3 and ¾ cups.

3 tablespoons of butter = 3/16ths of a cup of butter.  (16 tablespoons in a cup.)

3/16th of a cup of butter = 0.1875 cups of butter.

0.1875 cups of butter times 0.625 becomes 0.117187 cups of butter.  Round up to 0.12.  And hey, two tablespoons is 0.125 cups.  So our recipe will be slightly butterier; this is a bad thing?

So what do you do with the leftover 25 marshmallows?  Simple:  Toss in another 3 and ¾ cups Rice Krispies and two tablespoons of butter, and make a batch to keep for yourself.

Or I suppose, you could just"eyeball" it ... but what fun would cooking that way be?
 

Rice Krispies:  http://www.ricekrispies.com