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Dessert

Rhubarb Relish

A sweet preserve made from rhubarb, citrus, raisins, currants, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 Relish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine rhubarb, water, sugar, lemon pulp and rind, orange pulp and rind, raisins, and currants in a pot.

  2. Cook over low heat until thick.

  3. Seal in jars while hot.

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. Lemon + orangetop 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. Rhubarb + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart base and body of the relish as it cooks down.
Sugar
Sweetens the relish and helps it thicken and keep as the liquid cooks off.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aromatic oils from the rind to balance the sweetness.
Orange
Adds citrus acidity and aroma from the rind to brighten the fruit.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the relish.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the relish.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until thick. Low heat lets water evaporate slowly while the sugar and fruit thicken the mixture. Higher heat can scorch the sugar and burn the bottom of the pot, while stopping too early leaves the relish too loose to keep well once sealed.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, lemon, orange, raisin. 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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