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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Wash the rhubarb stalks well and cut them into 1‑inch pieces.
Place the pieces in a preserving kettle and add enough water to cover them.
Boil until the rhubarb becomes a soft pulp.
Strain the mixture through a jelly bag to extract the juice.
Make the jelly
For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the mixture again, skimming often.
When the jelly forms on the skimmer, remove it from the heat and pour it into pans.
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.
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.
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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 stalks
- Provide the tart flavour and the pectin-rich pulp that the jelly sets from.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps the jelly set firm and hold its shape.
The step that matters
Judging when the jelly sets. Boiling too briefly leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and cloudy. The jelly forms on the skimmer when the sugar and pectin concentration is right to set on cooling.
“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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