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A Meringue of Rhubarb, or Green Gooseberries

A meringue topping made with rhubarb or green gooseberries, sweetened with powdered and dry sifted sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

A Meringue of Rhubarb, or Green Gooseberries

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the rhubarb base

  1. In a saucepan, combine rhubarb and 8 ounces of powdered sugar, then stew gently until it forms a smooth pulp.

  2. Increase the heat and stir often until reduced to a dry marmalade, then let it cool completely.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold in 4 tablespoons of dry sifted sugar until well combined.

  3. Spread the meringue over the cooled rhubarb in a deep tart dish.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes, until the center is firm and the top is lightly browned.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rhubarb + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Cooks down into a dry marmalade that forms the tart's fruity base.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the rhubarb and helps it break down into a smooth pulp.
Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they form the airy foam that becomes the meringue topping.
Dry sifted sugar
Folded into the whites to stabilise the foam and sweeten the meringue.

The step that matters

Let the rhubarb cool completely before spreading the meringue. Warm fruit melts the meringue's foam and makes it weep or slide, so the topping can lose its structure and fail to set properly in the oven.

Swap the rhubarb

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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