Skip to main content
Dessert

Rhubarb Ginger

A preserve of rhubarb, ginger, and sugar simmered until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 Ginger

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Rub the rhubarb stalks with a damp towel.

  2. Cut the rhubarb into 1-inch lengths.

  3. Place the ginger in a kitchen towel and bruise it with a hammer.

  4. Layer the ginger, rhubarb, and sugar alternately in a large basin.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

Make the syrup

  1. Pour the syrup from the rhubarb into a preserving pan.

  2. Boil the syrup.

  3. Pour the boiling syrup over the rhubarb.

  4. Let it stand for another 24 hours.

Cook and pot

  1. Transfer everything to a large preserving pan.

  2. Place the pan over a brisk fire and stir until boiling.

  3. Skim the mixture.

  4. Reduce the heat and simmer slowly for 30 minutes.

  5. Pour into pots.

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 fruit base that gives the preserve its body as it breaks down.
Lump sugar
Draws moisture out of the fruit and forms the syrup, sweetening and helping the preserve set.
Whole ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic spice that balances the sharpness of the rhubarb.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly after skimming. Sugar must dissolve fully and the mixture must reach a gentle boil before simmering, otherwise the preserve may scorch on the bottom of the pan or fail to thicken evenly. Sugar concentration rising during simmering is what lets the preserve set as it cools.

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