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Dessert

Rhubarb Marmalade

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Rhubarb Marmalade

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Rhubarb Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut one quart of red rhubarb into pieces.

  2. Pulp four oranges and grate their rind.

  3. Juice one lemon and grate its rind.

  4. Combine the rhubarb, orange pulp and rind, lemon juice and rind, and three cups of sugar.

  5. Cook all together until thick.

Extract the juice

  1. Select perfect fruit, wash it, and put it in a porcelain-lined kettle with enough water to cover. Cook slowly until the fruit is tender.

  2. Strain through a flannel bag and measure the juice.

  3. Allow one cup less of sugar than the amount of juice.

Make the marmalade

  1. Warm the sugar in the oven, but do not allow it to burn.

  2. Boil the juice for twenty minutes. Add the hot sugar, stir until the sugar is dissolved.

  3. Skim thoroughly and cook about ten minutes, or until it jellies when a little is dropped on a cold plate.

  4. Turn at once in glasses, let remain to settle twenty-four hours, then cover the tops with melted paraffin.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

123Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Rhubarbnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Rhubarb + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. 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
Provides the main body and tart flavour of the marmalade.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and, with the fruit, helps it set into a jelly.
Oranges
Add pectin-rich pulp and rind for setting, plus bitter aroma.
Lemon
Adds acidity and pectin, which help the marmalade thicken and set.

The step that matters

Skim thoroughly and cook until it jellies. Setting depends on sugar, acid and pectin reaching the right concentration. Undercooking leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or dark. Testing on a cold plate shows when it has reached the gel point.

Swap the rhubarb

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, 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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