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Dessert

Rhubarb Conserve

A sweet preserve made from rhubarb, lemon, sugar, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and rhubarb match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 546 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rhubarb Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Wash the rhubarb stalks and cut them into pieces.

  2. Place the rhubarb in a preserving kettle and add enough water to cover it.

  3. Finely shred the lemons and add them to the rhubarb.

  4. Cook until the rhubarb is tender.

Make the preserve

  1. Add the granulated sugar and chopped pecans, then cook until very thick, stirring to prevent burning.

  2. Pour the conserve into pint-sized Perfect Seal jars and seal immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + rhubarbtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Cherry + rhubarbtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together37 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cherry + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nuts + rhubarbtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cherry + nutstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavour and the bulk of the preserve as it breaks down.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens and, as it cooks down, thickens the fruit into a set preserve.
Lemons
Add acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the sugar.
Pecan nuts
Add crunch and a rich, toasted flavour to the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar stage until very thick. Sugar and rhubarb must cook long enough for the pectin and sugar concentration to set the preserve. Stirring prevents the sugar from scorching on the base of the kettle.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cherry, lemon, sugar, rhubarb):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cherry, lemon, sugar, rhubarb. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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