Forced Rhubarb Sweet Recipes
Economical Cookery Old-Style Cold Pudding Dishes Using Rhubarb
Mar 18, 2009
Most recipes do not distinguish using main season rhubarb from forced rhubarb yet there are important differences in appearance and taste. Seasonal and local cooks will appreciate that the forcing of rhubarb crowns over winter can produce early sweeter tasting rhubarb than the main season.
Although rhubarb (Rheum x cultorum) a member of the Polygonaceae family, is a perennial vegetable, its uses in British cookery in the 1920s and 1930s was in homely hot puddings such as rhubarb crumble and cold desserts including stewed fruit, deemed good for convalescence and recovery.
Economical Cookery Recipes Using Rhubarb
The following recipes for Rhubarb Shape and Rhubarb Jelly were written by an anonymous food writer and published in Economical Cookery (Morrison and Gibb, 1930). Some cooks today will be less keen to use cornflour in the Rhubarb Shape and gelatine in the Rhubarb Jelly. At eighty years old, the Economical Cookery recipes using rhubarb may requite a little polishing for individual preferences and use of metric measures.
Rhubarb Shape
Ingredients:
- 2 lb rhubarb
- 1/4 pint water
- 4 oz sugar
- 1 1/2 oz cornflour
Directions:
- Prepare the rhubarb, cut it into neat pieces, and stew with the water and sugar until tender.
- Pass through a sieve and add sufficient water to make up to 1 pint.
- Blend the cornflour with a little cold water, add it to the rhubarb mixture, return to the saucepan, stir and boil for 3 minutes.
- Pour into a wetted mould, and leave to set.
- Loosen the edges of the mould with the tips of the fingers, and turn out on to a dish.
Rhubarb Jelly
Ingredients:
- 1 dessertspoonful gelatine
- 1/4 pint water
- 4 to 5 oz sugar
- 1 1/2 lb rhubarb
- Thinly peeled rind of 1/2 lemon
Directions:
- Place the sugar, lemon rind, and water into a saucepan.
- Bring to the boil.
- Add the rhubarb previously washed and cut into slices.
- Cook it gently until thoroughly tender,
- Dissolve the gelatine in a little of the hot juice, then stir it into the contents of the saucepan.
- Pour into a wetted mould.
- Put into a cold place or refridgerator to set.
Finally, the serving suggestion for Rhubarb Jelly in Economical Cookery 1930 is "To serve, turn on to a glass or silver dish, and decorate with a little whipped cream".
Rhubarb Recipe Caveats
Summer season rhubarb could work just as well although forced rhubarb is believed to be sweeter to the taste. When buying rhubarb, check the freshness and ripeness of the edible stems of rhubarb. Freshness can be assessed by how turgid the stems are best harvested by a twisting and a break of the stem from the crown. Early season rhubarb will have a good rosy colour while late summer stems tend to be greener and tougher which will require longer cooking times and offer a different appearance to cold puddings using rhubarb.
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