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Dessert

Rhubarb Mold

A molded dessert made from boiled rhubarb, gelatin, sugar, lemon juice, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 276 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Rhubarb Mold

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rhubarb mold

  1. Place the rhubarb in a saucepan with a lid and boil until it becomes a pulp.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in hot water.

  3. Add the dissolved gelatin to the rhubarb along with the sugar and boil for 15 minutes.

  4. Stir in a few drops of lemon juice.

  5. Pour the mixture into a mold.

Unmold and serve

  1. Dip the mold in hot water the next day.

  2. Turn the mold out onto a glass dish.

Make the custard

  1. Simmer the egg yolks, milk, and sugar until thick.

  2. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to the custard.

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 + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Red rhubarb
Provides the main fruit body and tart flavour of the mold once cooked to a pulp.
Gelatin
Sets the cooked rhubarb pulp into a firm mold that holds its shape when turned out.
Powdered white sugar
Sweetens the rhubarb and helps the mixture set with a smooth, soft texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a custard through gentle heat-setting.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness.

The step that matters

Simmer the custard until thick. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. Boiling or overheating can curdle the custard, so it should be simmered gently and watched closely.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, gelatin, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, gelatin, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla. 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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