Home › Fruits and Cereals › Stewed Rhubarb
Stewed Rhubarb
The stalks should be firm. Use none that are withered. Put them in cold water for an hour. Cut up into pieces about 1/2 inch long. Put over the fire in a porcelain-lined pan and add plenty of sugar. Add sufficient water to cover, and let it come slowly to the boiling-point. Let it stew gently until tender, and, after taking it off the fire, let it get cold before serving. Raisins may be added to this dish. The proper proportion is a third of a cupful of seeded and cut raisins to 1 cupful of cut rhubarb.
A plain compote that hangs on two things: a non-reactive pan and restraint with the water.
- Use much less water than "sufficient to cover"Rhubarb is roughly 95 percent water and collapses into its own juice within minutes. A few tablespoons in the bottom of the pan is enough to keep it from catching; covering it produces a thin, washed-out syrup.
- Porcelain-lined pan means non-reactiveRhubarb stalks are acidic (mainly malic acid, with some oxalic), and that acid reacts with bare aluminium, cast iron and unlined copper, discolouring the fruit and picking up a metallic taste. Enamelled cast iron, stainless steel or glass all do the job the porcelain lining was there for.
- Leaves are not foodOnly the stalks are used here. Rhubarb leaves carry high levels of oxalic acid and related compounds and should be cut away and discarded, along with any leaf base that is still attached.
- How much sugar"Plenty" in a book of this period assumes a heavier hand than most cooks want now. Start at 1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar per pound of trimmed stalks, taste once the fruit has softened, and add more off the heat if needed.
- TimingGentle stewing means 8 to 15 minutes depending on thickness. Stop while the pieces still hold their shape if you want a compote; a few minutes more and it becomes sauce, which is fine but not reversible.
- The cold-water soakThe hour in cold water freshens limp stalks and is worth doing with supermarket rhubarb that has travelled. Fresh garden stalks do not need it; drain well either way so you are not adding more liquid.
- RaisinsA third of a cup of chopped seeded raisins to a cup of cut rhubarb is a generous ratio and sweetens the dish considerably, so cut the sugar back if you use them. Modern seedless raisins need no seeding, only chopping.
- YieldAbout a pound of trimmed rhubarb, roughly 3 cups cut, should serve about four as a dessert or spooned over cream, custard or porridge. The recipe itself gives no quantities or yield.