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Dessert

Another Rhubarb Jam

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and lemon 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 ↓

Another Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the rhubarb stalks into small pieces.

Make the jam

  1. In a pot, combine the rhubarb, sugar, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind.

  2. Boil gently for three hours, stirring occasionally.

Variations

  1. If you prefer a stronger rhubarb flavor, omit the lemon rind.

  2. For a less sweet jam, use 6 ounces less sugar and boil the rhubarb for one hour before adding the sugar.

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 + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb stalks
Supplies the tart flavour and most of the bulk of the jam.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as water evaporates, helps thicken the jam.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rhubarb.
Lemon rind
Adds aroma from the oils in the peel.

The step that matters

Boil gently for three hours, stirring occasionally. Sugar and rhubarb can stick and scorch on the base of the pot during a long simmer. Occasional stirring keeps the heat even and lets water evaporate so the jam thickens gradually.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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