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RHUBARB, COMPOTE OF (another way) (Small forced rhubarb)
The small forced rhubarb (Mitchell's Royal Albert) is by far the best for this dish. Cut about half a pound of it into pieces half an inch in length, which put into a stewpan with a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar and a wine-glassful of water; set it over a sharp fire, occasionally shaking the stewpan round, and when quite tender pour the contents into a basin until cold, when it is ready for serving; should the syrup be too thin, add sufficient isinglass to set it, and when cold dress it pyramidically upon the dish.
A plain stewed-rhubarb compote that depends entirely on not overcooking the fruit. Forced rhubarb collapses in minutes, so the pan wants watching rather than timing.
- The hinge: stop while the pieces hold their shape"quite tender" here is best read as yielding to a knife tip but still recognisably batons. Forced rhubarb softens very fast, so pull the pan as the pieces begin to slump; they carry on softening as they cool in the syrup.
- A wine-glassfulIn Victorian cookery books this is roughly 2 fl oz, about a quarter of a cup. With half a pound of rhubarb it is barely more than enough to stop the sugar catching before the fruit gives up its own juice.
- "A sharp fire"Brisk heat, not a simmer — the point is to cook fast so the pieces set their shape before they break down. Shake the pan rather than stir; a spoon shreds the fruit.
- IsinglassA gelatine made from sturgeon swim bladders, sold in leaf or shred form and now essentially unavailable outside brewing supply. Ordinary leaf or powdered gelatine does the same job; for a light set use about 1 leaf (2 g) per half-cup of syrup, or reduce the syrup by boiling instead.
- Forced rhubarbMitchell's Royal Albert was a named forcing variety; any early forced rhubarb — the pale pink, thin-stemmed sort grown in the dark — behaves the same way. Maincrop garden rhubarb is thicker, greener and more acid, needs longer cooking and more sugar, and will not hold its shape as neatly.
- SugarA quarter pound to half a pound of fruit is a 1:2 ratio by weight, sweet by modern taste but it is what gives the thick syrup the recipe assumes. Cut it back much and the result is thinner and more watery.
- LeavesRhubarb leaf blades contain oxalic acid and related compounds and are not eaten; trim them off and use stalks only. This is a stalk recipe throughout, but forced bunches sometimes arrive with leaf still attached.
- Yield and servingHalf a pound of rhubarb serves two, three at a stretch. "Dress it pyramidically" means heaping the drained pieces into a cone on a glass dish and spooning the set syrup over — serve cold, with cream or a plain custard.
Forced rhubarb was a Victorian luxury of the late winter and early spring: crowns lifted from the field, moved into heated dark sheds, and cropped by candlelight so the stems grew pale, slender and comparatively mild. The trade came to centre, over the later nineteenth century, on the West Riding of Yorkshire, whose growers supplied London markets by rail — though the recipe may well predate that concentration — and named varieties like the Royal Albert cited here were sold by nurserymen much as apple cultivars were. A compote — French in name, and simply fruit stewed in syrup and served in its own liquor — was the standard genteel treatment for such fruit, distinct from a tart or a pudding. The suggestion to set a thin syrup with isinglass and build the result into a pyramid says a good deal about the period's taste for dishes that arrived at table with an architecture to them.