National Fluffernutter Day is October 8, when we fondly pay homage to the childhood sandwich of peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff squished between two slices of bread. Fluffernutter holds a special place in the childhood memories of many New Englanders and is memorialized by its own special day on the calendar.
Although marshmallows date back to the Roman Empire, the marshmallow and its culinary cousins, marshmallow cream and fluff, were used as homeopathic remedies in the 1800s. But the Marshmallow Fluff associated with the world-famous Fluffernutter was first whipped up by Archibald Query of Sommerville, Massachusetts in 1917. Archibald made batches of Fluff in his kitchen and sold it door to door until sugar shortages and rationing during World War I brought Fluff sales to a not-so-sweet halt.
After the war ended, two candlemakers joined Archie as partners in 1920 and renamed the original recipe “Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff.” Archie sold his recipe to partners H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower for $500 on May 14, 1920, who shortened their product’s name to Marshmallow Fluff.
Sales of Fluff under the Durkee-Mower, Inc. brand increased over the next decade. In 1930 the company sponsored a 15-minute radio variety show, “The Flufferettes,” to market their popular confection. As demand for gooey sweet Fluff grew, the company released “The Yummy Book” cookbook in 1940 with recipes using Fluff.
The big break endearing the famous peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff sandwich into hearts and kitchens across New England came in the 1960s when Durkee-Mower, Inc. trademarked “Fluffernutter,” the name of the most famous culinary concoction using Fluff.
2006 was a big year for the Fluffernutter. A proposal was made in the Massachusetts state assembly to make it the official sandwich of Massachusetts. That same year Fluffernutter became a new Brigham’s Ice Cream flavor. The state sandwich proposal failed, but the ice cream was a hit. And the first festival celebrating Marshmallow Fluff was held that summer.
