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Dessert

Rhubarb and Orange Jam

Jam made from rhubarb, orange pulp, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and orange work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 299 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Rhubarb and Orange Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut the rinds of the oranges into sections and remove them, scraping off as much of the white pith as possible.

  2. Free the pulp from fibrous skin and seeds.

Cook the jam

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the pulp, sugar, rhubarb, and finely shredded orange rinds.

  2. Bring the mixture slowly to a boil, skimming well.

  3. Boil until the jam stiffens when tested on a cold plate.

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 + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together299 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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 bulk of the jam and its tart flavour.
Oranges
Contribute aromatic citrus flavour and natural pectin from the pith and seeds.
Preserving sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it set by binding water and preserving the fruit.

The step that matters

Boil until the jam stiffens on a cold plate. Jam sets only when enough water evaporates and the sugar and pectin reach the right concentration. Undercooking leaves it runny; overcooking makes it stiff and dull. The cold-plate test shows when the set point is reached.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Quincefits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar. 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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