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Dessert

Rhubarb and Orange Jam

A jam made from rhubarb, oranges, and sugar, boiled until thick.

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

  1. Wipe the rhubarb and cut it into pieces about 1 inch long.

  2. Cut the oranges as you would for marmalade.

Cook

  1. Combine the rhubarb, oranges, and sugar in a pot.

  2. Boil for 1 hour or more, stirring occasionally.

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 tart flavor and the fruit bulk that the jam is built from.
Oranges
Add acidity and aromatic citrus flavor that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and keep as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Boiling for 1 hour or more. Long boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and pectin from the fruit, so the jam sets. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while stirring occasionally helps prevent scorching on the bottom of the pot.

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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