# Observations on rhubarb pie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [September 25, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339 "2021-09-25T21:51:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/21 "2021-09-26T07:52:58Z")
My mom makes a rhubarb dessert that is basically a pie crust in a 9x13 pan, rhubard filling and then meringue. So good. I’ve made stewed rhubarb, which is pretty good. I think I could grow rhubarb here. But the leaves are poisonous and I’m right next to the play area, so maybe not a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/22 "2021-09-26T08:53:49Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > The previous owners of our current house apparently intended to plant rhubarb in the yard, but never got around to it- they just left them, unpotted, sitting in the ground in the side of our house… What’s the difference between planting something and “putting it in the ground”? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/23 "2021-09-26T12:19:50Z")
I have bought rhubarb pie in shops in the UK in recent years- Morrisons supermarket seems to stock it. It was nowhere near as good as home-made though and wasn’t very well filled. Most of the rhubarb stuff that’s available is overly sweet and underly rhubarb for my tastes. I adore rhubarb, but it’s only sporadically available and generally overly expensive unless you can grow it at home here, and I’ve not been in a situation to grow my own for a while. I did get a few nice big stalks from a friend a few weeks back though, which I stewed and had with ice cream. Hopefully I can visit my friends who live just outside the [Rhubarb Triangle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb_Triangle) soon, 'cos they grow stems as thick as my arm, and give it away by the bag. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/24 "2021-09-26T12:28:11Z")
I love rhubarb, but have to make my own pies and tarts. Everyone else adds way too much sugar. I like mine sourrr. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/25 "2021-09-26T12:30:58Z")
I have to make all my own pies. I love fruit pie in general, but commercially made pies are all goo, and have too little fruit and far too much sugar. This problem is not unique to pies that feature rhubarb, sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/26 "2021-09-26T13:07:13Z")
Sadly, my rhubarb patch is not doing well. I remember our rhubarb from childhood as not needing any maintenance, it simply crowded everything else from its spot. Mine now need constant weeding. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/27 "2021-09-26T13:44:26Z")
My wife found a recipe book entitled [Rhubarb Renaissance](https://www.amazon.com/Rhubarb-renaissance-cookbook-Ann-Saling/dp/0914718312). It takes one well beyond rhubarb as a dessert ingredient and offers such items as rhubarb salsa (amazing with chicken and seafood), Turkey rhubarbeque, rhubarb-zucchini bread, and lots more. If you have a rhubarb patch you should consider checking it out. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/28 "2021-09-26T13:48:30Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > What’s the difference between planting something and “putting it in the ground”? The previous owners just removed the plants from the pots they came in and then set them- dirt and bare roots- on the ground, clearly with the intention of planting them around the yard, which they never got around to. The plants just shot roots out through the bottom of their own dirt piles and then took root in the ground underneath. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/29 "2021-09-26T14:05:48Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > My mother-in-law feels so strongly about the importance of rhubarb pie that when she moved, she insisted as part of the sale of the house that she be allowed to come back and dig up the rhubarb she had planted at the correct time of the year to transplant it safely. The rhubarb did not convey. The lawyer thought she was kidding. She wasn’t. Fortunately, she had sold her house to a friend, and he was okay with her returning for the rhubarb. on a related note, when my wife and I located to the other end of the country she insisted on taking some of here dad’s rhubarb to be planted in our new garden. It has thrived and given us many, many happy rhubarb crumbles over the years. It also forms the basis of “garden crumble” which is our term for whatever happens to be ripe in the garden at the time (or has been stashed in the freezer for such an occaision) ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/30 "2021-09-26T14:15:38Z")
Mom used to make rhubarb pie. Always hated it. Sour blech. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/31 "2021-09-26T14:55:39Z")
Rhubarb is rarely seen down here in Louisiana – I take it that our winters are far too warm for it to thrive here. To me, rhubarb looks exactly like celery, except with red stems. Is rhubarb similar to celery biologically? Can rhubarb be used as an aromatic in savory dishes the way chopped celery is used, say, in a [mirepoix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirepoix)? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/32 "2021-09-26T15:35:15Z")
When I was a kid, my mother had a friend who grew her own rhubarb and frequently made some kind of rhubarb jelly concoction that she served straight up for dessert. I don’t know what my adult palate would think, but I loathed it as a kid - it had an unpleasantly gluey texture and sour taste. I’ve been wary of rhubarb ever since. I’ve also never been a fan of strawberries. But somehow, I don’t recall where or when except that it happened by the time my son was still very young, I must have had the good fortune to be forced to taste strawberry-rhubarb pie. Enlightenment! Put rhubarb and strawberries together and they cancel out each other’s worst tendencies, combining into a sublimely aromatic, pleasingly tart blend of flavors (I don’t overdo the sugar when I make it). That became my son’s favorite dessert. So I don’t know why you need straight-up rhubarb pie. Strawberry rhubarb is to die for. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/33 "2021-09-26T16:23:45Z")
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve had it. But my understanding is that - it’s commonly paired with strawberry; - It’s sour; - I’ve never heard of it as an ice cream topping. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/34 "2021-09-26T16:44:55Z")
Rhubarb has no flavor to my taste buds. Just tartness. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/35 "2021-09-27T01:09:46Z")
I’d describe the flavor as vaguely similar to sour apples. ---
**Author:** ![wombattver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b77776/32.png) [@wombattver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wombattver)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339/36 "2021-09-27T06:30:50Z")
Come to Switzerland! Rhubarb is common here - fresh in the grocery stores, and jams and confits are easy to find year-round. When it’s in season, most cafes will have rhubarb tarts and other desserts on offer. For pies, you’d have to make your own as the typical American “pie” isn’t really found here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/observations-on-rhubarb-pie/951339.md?page=1)