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Rhubarb Syrup

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Simmer rhubarb root, cinnamon bark, and baking soda in boiling water for 1 hour.

  2. Cool the mixture and strain it.

  3. Add white sugar and whisky to the strained liquid.

  4. Bottle the syrup and store it in a cool place.

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. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + whiskytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together205 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

  5. Rhubarb + whiskytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, whisky. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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