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Dessert

Rhubarb Cream

A chilled dessert made from rhubarb, sugar, gelatin, cream, and optional coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Rhubarb Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Wash and cut up the rhubarb.

  2. Cook the rhubarb in the cold water until tender, then strain.

Make the syrup

  1. Add the sugar to the rhubarb juice, boil, and skim until clear.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine in ½ pint of the syrup and let it cool.

Set and serve

  1. Whisk the cream until stiff, then add the syrup and stir until it begins to set.

  2. Pour the mixture into a wet mold and let it set.

  3. Once set, turn it out and pour the remaining syrup around it.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Rhubarb + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

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 the juice that becomes the syrup.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the rhubarb juice and helps form a clear syrup.
Gelatine
Sets the syrup so the cream mixture holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, creamy texture when whisked stiff.

The step that matters

Whisking the cream until stiff, then stirring until it begins to set. Cream must be whisked to stiff peaks and folded in while the gelatine syrup is only starting to set. If the gelatine sets fully first, the mixture becomes lumpy, and if the cream is under-whisked, the mousse will not hold its shape.

Swap the rhubarb

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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