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Rhubarb Soup

A simple soup of rhubarb juice, rolled wheat or oatmeal, flaked peanuts or pignolias, finished with honey or olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 151 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Rhubarb Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the rhubarb juice, rolled wheat or oatmeal, and flaked peanuts or pignolias in a soup bowl. Mix well and let stand for 15 minutes or longer.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, add honey or olive oil.

  2. Beat with a spoon and serve with a teaspoon.

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. Wheat + peanuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Wheat + honeytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Rhubarb + wheattop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Peanut + honeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together420 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Rhubarb + peanuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb juice
Provides the liquid base and tart acidity that defines the soup.
Rolled wheat or oatmeal
Absorbs liquid as it stands, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Peanuts or pignolias
Adds fat and nutty flavour and a bit of texture to the soup.
Honey or olive oil
Adds sweetness with honey or richness and fat with olive oil, added just before serving.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture stand. The rolled wheat or oatmeal needs time to absorb the rhubarb juice and swell; serving too early leaves the soup thin and grainy.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, peanut, honey):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Corianderfits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, peanut, honey. 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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