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Rhubarb Marmalade

A preserve made from pineapple, rhubarb, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Rhubarb Marmalade

Why it works: Pineapple and rhubarb share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 56 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Rhubarb Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the pineapple very thin and cut into small pieces, removing the core.

  2. Peel the rhubarb and cut into small pieces, then cover with 10 lbs of sugar and leave overnight.

Cook

  1. Add 5 lbs of sugar to the pineapple and simmer slowly until tender.

  2. Boil both the pineapple and rhubarb mixtures together for 20 minutes.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the marmalade and store it for later use.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pineapple + rhubarbtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + rhubarbtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

  3. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple
Provides the bulk of the fruit and a tart, bright flavour that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out moisture, which helps it thicken and keep.
Rhubarb
Adds tartness and a sharp fruity flavour to the marmalade.

The step that matters

Boil both mixtures together for 20 minutes. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar, which thickens the marmalade and helps it keep. Too short a boil leaves it runny and more prone to spoiling.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rhubarb. 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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