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Dessert

Baked Rhubarb and Raisins

A baked dish of chopped rhubarb and raisins sweetened with sugar and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and raisin work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 47 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Rhubarb and Raisins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a baking dish, combine the chopped rhubarb and raisins.

  3. Sprinkle sugar over the mixture and dot with butter.

Bake

  1. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes until bubbly.

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 + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Raisin + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides 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 flavor and breaks down into a soft, saucy texture when baked.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture that contrasts with the softened rhubarb.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps draw out juices to form a syrup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the fruit take on a silky finish.

The step that matters

Covering with foil for the first 30 minutes. The foil traps steam so the rhubarb softens fully and releases its juices before the top is exposed. Removing it too early can leave the fruit firm and the sauce thin.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Rhubarbthe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, butter. 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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