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Dessert

Rhubarb Jam

A jam made from rhubarb, sugar, lemon rind, almonds, butter, and whiskey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 117 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and cut rhubarb into small pieces.

  2. Weigh the rhubarb and use an equal amount of sugar.

  3. Add the lemon rind, chopped almonds, and butter to the rhubarb.

Cook the jam

  1. Bring the mixture to a slow boil, stirring constantly and skimming as needed.

  2. Boil quickly until a small amount sets on a plate, about 1.5 hours.

  3. Stir in whiskey just before finishing.

Jar

  1. Pour the jam into jars and seal them.

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 + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Rhubarb + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the main bulk and tart flavour of the jam.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it cooks.
Sweet almonds
Add nutty flavour and a little body to the jam.
Butter
Adds richness and helps reduce foaming while cooking.
Whiskey
Adds aroma and warmth, stirred in at the end to keep its flavour.

The step that matters

Boil quickly until a small amount sets on a plate. Jam sets when enough water evaporates and sugar and pectin reach the right concentration. Undercooking leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull. Testing a cold plate shows when it is ready.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, almond, butter. 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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