π ≠ R(hubarb)2,

The last Saucyman left off repeating the wisdom of cookbook authors that rhubarb and cranberries are interchangeable. In the intervening days, I hope no one ran out to make the oxymoronic Rhubapoltian – lime, vodka and rhubarb juice. Actually, that doesn’t sound all that horrible – in a chilled, slightly bitter aperitif on a summer day type of drink. If only they drank it on Sex in the City, little leafy stalks garnishing out of old-fashioned glasses like paper parasols shading mojitos, it could have been popular, it could have been a trend. Although the Rhubapolitan will remain a figment of my imagination, Italians infuse a nominally alcoholic liqueur, Rabarbaro with rhubarb, quinine and other purportedly medicinal herbs, claiming it is a restorative rather than a cocktail – usually it is people from the States who justify their habits with testimonies of health benefits.

But if setting up a still is a little too onerous for a few pounds of rhubarb, there is the single most proffered rhubarb recipe in the Saucitorium, compote. Compote is just another word for nothing left to do (with fruit). Or non-lyrically, compote is fruit preserved in syrup, it makes a good topping for ice cream, French Toast or cake.

Simmered with sugar, water and ginger until soft then passed through a foodmill rhubarb makes for the loveliest rose-colored fruit jam ever. Julia Child and Dorie Greenspan recommended that jam (with vanilla instead of ginger) for the sandwich layer of the Hungarian Shortbread recipe in their Baking with Julia volume.

The pound or so of rhubarb that I was recently gifted was turned into jam. Rather than shortbreaded, it will be mixed with cream cheese and baked into the interior of brioche, a little spring treat to share with my coworkers and my rhubarb-giving neighbor.

Either a jam or compotes can be used in constructing a fool, a dessert that is layered like a trifle but without cake or custard. Fools, the dessert, are thought to be an Anglicization of the French word, fouler, meaning to mash. Or the name evolved as the dish evolved - what was once a spiced custard, slowly changed into one featuring mashed fruit and cream, fooling some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.

There are buckles, crisps, cobblers and Bettys – No, that isn’t the second Sex in the City reference of the post, well now it is, but that wasn’t my intention. Here, I am referring to the family of baked desserts that rely on a topping for texture and body. Rhubarb, which is both bitter and acidic tasting would be a good foil for a sweet, salty, rich topping.

Or you can come full circle, realizing that not only do strawberries and rhubarb arrive to market at the same time of the year, the sweetness of strawberries compliment the tartness of rhubarb. A rich, buttery crust contrasts and highlights both ingredients, leaving little wonder how it is the strawberry-rhubarb pie is a springtime fixture.