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Dessert

Rhubarb Jam

A sweet preserve made from rhubarb and sugar, cooked until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate the rhubarb

  1. Combine rhubarb and sugar in a bowl and let sit overnight.

  2. Pour off the syrup.

Cook the jam

  1. Boil the syrup until it thickens.

  2. Add the rhubarb to the thickened syrup.

  3. Boil gently for 15 minutes.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour into jars.

  2. Seal like currant jelly.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Rhubarb + syruptop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart fruit base and bulk that the jam is built around.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out its juice, then thickens as the syrup reduces.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup until it thickens. Sugar syrup must reach a thick, concentrated state before the rhubarb goes in. Under-boiled syrup leaves the jam thin and runny, while over-boiling can scorch the sugar and darken the flavor.

Swap the rhubarb

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. 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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