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Dessert

Pillau, East Indian Rhubarb Turnovers

A pastry turnover filled with rhubarb, sweetened with sugar and ginger, then baked and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and ginger work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Pillau, East Indian Rhubarb Turnovers

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turnovers

  1. Make a good pastry.

  2. Roll it out to ¼ inch thick.

  3. Cut rounds 4 to 6 inches in diameter.

  4. Place rhubarb on half of each round.

  5. Add sugar.

  6. Sprinkle with ginger.

  7. Fold the pastry over.

  8. Pinch edges tightly.

Glaze and bake

  1. Brush with egg white.

  2. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

  3. Bake on a baking sheet at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.

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 + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Pastry
Forms the flaky case that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
Young rhubarb
Provides the tart fruit filling that the sugar balances.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps it caramelise slightly as it bakes.
Powdered ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the rhubarb.
Egg white
Gives the surface a glossy sheen and helps the powdered sugar stick.

The step that matters

Pinch edges tightly. A poorly sealed edge lets juice escape during baking, so the filling leaks out and the turnover can burst or empty. Firm pinching fuses the pastry layers so the steam and juices stay inside.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, 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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