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Dessert

Rhubarb Pudding

A baked dessert made from rhubarb, lime peel, spices, sugar, butter, and eggs, lined with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Peel and wash the rhubarb thoroughly.

  2. Blanch the rhubarb in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes.

  3. Drain the rhubarb in a sieve.

Make the filling

  1. In a stewpan, combine the rhubarb, lime peel, cinnamon, cloves, and enough sugar to sweeten.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it reduces to a marmalade consistency.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Add the lime peel, grated nutmeg, butter, egg yolks, and egg white to the rhubarb mixture and mix well.

Bake

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the rhubarb mixture into the lined pie dish.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Lime + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together470 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the main tart flavour and bulk of the filling, which cooks down into a thick marmalade.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps it reduce to a thick, spreadable consistency.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Egg white
Adds structure to the filling, helping it set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Reduce the rhubarb to a marmalade consistency. Rhubarb releases a lot of water as it cooks. Cooking it until thick removes that moisture, so the filling sets firmly rather than running or making the pastry soggy when baked with the eggs.

Swap the lime

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, cinnamon, clove, sugar, nutmeg, butter, 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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