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 Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the thin skin from the rhubarb and cut it into 1-inch pieces.
Wash the rhubarb and place it in a saucepan, covering it with boiling water.
After an hour, pour off the water.
Make the sauce
Add ½ cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to the rhubarb.
Cook quickly until the sugar dissolves, then cool in an earthen dish.
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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Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rhubarb
- Provides the tart flavor and the body that the cooked sauce is built from.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and balances the rhubarb's tartness.
The step that matters
Cook quickly until the sugar dissolves. Sugar must fully dissolve before the mixture gets too hot, otherwise undissolved crystals can stay gritty and the sauce can scorch on the bottom of the pan. A quick, steady heat dissolves the sugar without overcooking the rhubarb.
“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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