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Rhubarb Meringue

A pastry shell filled with baked rhubarb topped with beaten egg white meringue, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb Meringue

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the shell and filling

  1. Make a shell of good light pastry.

  2. Fill the shell with baked rhubarb.

Make the meringue

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat.

  3. Spread the meringue over the rhubarb.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until the meringue is a delicate brown.

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. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rhubarb + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten into a foam that sets the meringue and gives it its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Stabilises the beaten whites and adds sweetness, helping the meringue hold its shape and brown.
Baked rhubarb
Supplies the tart fruit filling that the meringue tops and contrasts with its sweetness.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites and adding the sugar. Whites must be beaten until stiff and the sugar added gradually so the foam stays stable. Under-beaten or greasy whites will not hold the meringue's volume, and sugar added too fast can leave it weepy or dense.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Rhubarbthe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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