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Stewed Rhubarb with Cornmeal Cakes or Muffins

Stewed rhubarb served with cornmeal cakes or muffins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Rhubarb with Cornmeal Cakes or Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Chop rhubarb and place it in a pot with water and sugar. Cook until tender.

Make the cornmeal cakes

  1. In a bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add melted butter and milk to the dry ingredients, stirring until smooth.

  3. Pour batter onto a hot griddle or skillet and cook until golden brown on both sides.

Serve

  1. Serve the stewed rhubarb alongside the cornmeal cakes or muffins.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Softens into a tart stewed fruit that contrasts with the sweet, mild cakes.
Cornmeal
Gives the cakes a coarse, slightly crumbly texture and a sweet corn flavour.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the batter together as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the cakes rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tenderness and flavour in the batter.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and adds moisture and richness to the batter.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornmeal cakes on the griddle. If the griddle is not hot enough, the cakes absorb grease and cook slowly without browning. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre sets. Medium-high heat gives even golden colour through the batter.

Swap the rhubarb

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour. 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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