Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Spiced Rhubarb
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rhubarb
Heat the rhubarb slowly in a porcelain kettle without water until the juice flows freely.
Place the kettle over direct heat and boil for 30 minutes.
Remove half of the juice and keep it hot in an earthen vessel.
Add spices and finish
Add the sugar, cloves, and cinnamon to the rhubarb and mix thoroughly.
If the mixture is too thick, add some of the reserved juice.
Simmer for 15 minutes and seal while hot.
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.
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Rhubarb + cinnamontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Rhubarb + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together93 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 preserve.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps thicken the mixture as liquid cooks off.
- Ground cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour.
- Ground cinnamon
- Adds warm, sweet aroma and spice flavour.
The step that matters
Adjusting the thickness. As liquid cooks off, sugar and rhubarb pectin thicken the mixture and it can turn stiff quickly. Adding back a little of the reserved hot juice keeps it spreadable before it is sealed.
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Rhubarbthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, cinnamon. 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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