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Dessert

Rhubarb Cream

A custard made from cooked rhubarb, sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, and cream or eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Rhubarb Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Peel and wash the rhubarb.

  2. Place it in a pan with a little water, lemon peel, cinnamon, and enough sugar to sweeten.

  3. Cook over moderate heat until it reduces to a marmalade.

Finish the custard

  1. Pass through a fine sieve and let it cool.

  2. Mix the cooled rhubarb with 1 pint of cream or 2 beaten eggs with 1 pint of milk.

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 + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the main flavour and, once cooked down and sieved, the body of the custard.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the rhubarb and helps it break down into a thick marmalade.
Eggs
Set when gently heated, giving the custard structure and richness.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture.
Milk
Thins the mixture and adds moisture and softness to the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the rhubarb down to a marmalade. Rhubarb must be cooked until most of its water evaporates and the pulp thickens. If it stays wet, the finished custard will be thin and watery.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, cinnamon, sugar, cream, milk. 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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