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Rhubarb Meringue Tarts

A tart of cooked rhubarb topped with a light meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 276 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Rhubarb Meringue Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Peel the rhubarb.

  2. Cut the rhubarb into pieces about 1 inch long.

  3. Place the rhubarb in a covered jar with a little water.

  4. Set the jar in the oven until the juice is drawn out.

  5. Add the beaten egg yolks, lemon rind, and moist sugar to the rhubarb.

  6. If the rhubarb is very juicy, pour off some of the juice.

Bake and top with meringue

  1. Line two tart pans with pastry.

  2. Fill the lined pans with the rhubarb mixture.

  3. Bake until the tarts are a delicate brown.

  4. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  5. Add the pounded sugar and vanilla flavoring to the whipped whites.

  6. Pile the meringue lightly on top of the tarts.

  7. Return the tarts to the oven to lightly brown the meringue.

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 + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 acidity and the bulk of the filling, releasing juice as it cooks.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and thicken the filling, while whipped whites form the light meringue topping.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the rhubarb and draws out its juice, balancing its tartness.
Pounded white sugar
Dissolves into the whipped whites to stabilise the meringue and give it a glossy, sweet finish.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks and be free of yolk, since fat prevents foam from forming properly. Stiff whites hold their shape on the tarts and brown evenly in the oven.

Swap the vanilla

The recipe marks vanilla as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, lemon, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, lemon, egg, 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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