Rhubarbian ken

2 questions - Do people really like rhubarb? Besides pie, what else is there? Stalker

Rhubarb’s annual springtime appearance in the market is an oddity across the board. A fibrous vegetable that is bought & sold as a fruit - usually as with avocados and tomatoes, fruits masquerading as veg are far more common. Rhubarb's flavor profile is odd for any food, but especially for a fruit – it is acidic, about 2.5% acid by weight – a lemon, not really an eating fruit is 5% acid. On top of being acidic, the plant particularly the leaves, are full of the bitter, potentially toxic oxalate compounds.

Perhaps because of its bitter, acidic flavor for most of its history the plant was used medicinally: Being known primarily as a medicine is never a ringing endorsement of an easy, palatable flavor…Take rhubarb’s frequent companion the strawberry, no one ever talks about its history in the apothecary (If you get anything other than the straight-forward goodness of strawberries, it is symbolic Bergman recollections of the lost sweetness of youth). It isn’t until the 16th century that rhubarb made its way to the table. Around this time in England, it was compared (favorably) to sorrel. Although rhubarb is used primarily as a sweet ingredient in the States, in other parts of the world it is used as a savory – stewed with spinach in Afghanistan and cooked with potatoes in Poland.

Explaining how a fibrous stalk native to Asia ended up being as American as pie, might be easier than theorizing if people actually like the taste of rhubarb. Home canning, cheap industrial sugar and transportation that could extend the availability of produce are all relatively recent developments. 100+ years ago, not all were universally accessible, so after a long winter of potatoes and cabbage, crops that would be ready early in the season were a premium. Something that was sweet and could be harvested months before tree fruits, all the better.

Rhubarb was important enough crop that plant entrepreneur (plantrepreneur?) Luther Burbank worked on breeding a cultivar that would be both sweeter and ready for an early harvest. Burbank imported seeds from Australia and worked on ‘improving’ the plant, selecting thinner, sweeter, redder, quicker-growing stalks until he marketed the very popular Crimson Winter variety. As plant breeders raised the sugar content, growers worked on getting the plant to market quicker - forcing the plants in hot houses, warmed beds and indoor starts – the combination of improved flavors and aggressive growing tactics meant rhubarb was the first sweet produce available to consumers. People who study such things call this time period the rhubarb boom, which lasted until the period between the wars, when cheap transportation and ubiquitous refrigeration largely negated the importance of early fruit.

More than one cookbook suggests that rhubarb and cranberries are interchangeable. Both are acidic, tart, not overly sweet, it makes sense they could be substituted for one another. The fact they are proxies for one another also helps explain rhubarb’s seasonal appeal. Like the Thanksgiving cranberry relish, rhubarb is not universally appreciated but is never the less expected at least once a year in the annual ritual that is strawberry-rhubarb pie.

The next edition of Saucyman will answer part two today's the question - other uses of rhubarb.