Skip to main content
Dessert

Rhubarb Jam with Ginger

A jam made from rhubarb, sugar, water, and ground ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rhubarb and ginger work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rhubarb Jam with Ginger

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. String the rhubarb and cut it into short lengths, then weigh it.

  2. Place the rhubarb in a kettle and add just enough water to prevent burning.

Make the jam

  1. Cook until the rhubarb is soft, then add one pound of sugar for each pound of rhubarb.

  2. Stir well until the jam becomes rich and syrupy.

  3. For each pound of rhubarb, mix about 1 teaspoon of ground ginger with a little water and add it to the jam.

  4. Boil the jam again while stirring well, then pour it into glasses and cover once cool.

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 + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 tart flavour and the bulk of the jam, breaking down as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps it thicken into a syrupy set.
Ground ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma that complements the tart rhubarb.

The step that matters

Adding the sugar after the rhubarb is soft. Sugar added before the rhubarb has softened can toughen its fibres and slow breakdown. Once soft, the sugar dissolves easily and concentrates as the jam cooks, which lets it thicken and set.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, ginger):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger. 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.

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesRhubarb PieRhubarb Pie152 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes