Rhubarb

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coastie

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Was talking with my father a couple days ago. We are going to try to dig out the rest of my grandmothers rhubarb bed this year. Both of us already have a lot growing at our houses. Does anyone here want any? I cant tell you what kind it is as it was planted by my grandfather probably 50-60 yrs ago and he probably got it from someone elses yard. We should have a fair amount so there will be plenty to share. It wont be dug up for a couple months but I figured I would post this before I forgot about it.
 
Bee-bop a rhu-bop rhubarb pie ! </lake woebegon>

Few things in life are better than a fresh slice of rhubarb pie and a cuppa coffee out on the porch.

Love to but too far. [sad]
 
I need to move mine from a shady spot out to a full sun spot. Anybody know when it is a good time to move it?
 
We have to start wearing our Northeast Shooters patches at the range to recognise one another. We should schedule a meet at the range and do some shooting.
 
OK. Got the rhubarb. I need to sort it out and see exactly how many I have. If you are still interested PM me and we can figure something out. I can probably give each of you at least 4 plants plus some root pieces.
 
I have lots of it and can't stand it. Anyone in Norwood area wants to pick or pull it let me know. It has been there for 40 years.
 
To anyone from Seabrook NH, Salisbury MA, or the Hamptons of NH, this is what you know to be "weebub" [smile]
 
Might anyone have any decent recipes? I made a pie or two last year but ended up giving most of it to my neighbor. He peels and sprinkles it with salt and eats it raw (yuck!)

Thanks,
Fitz
 
Rhubarb cram with real whipped cream is pretty nice. That or cram over vanilla ice cream on a hot summer night with a big glass of ice water after. Mmmmmmmm.
 
Oh Rhubarb afficiandos, help!

We put some rhubarb here awhile back and it is growing happily and I have had success making jam with it. The problem is pies! I tried to make a pie last year and again last night - both times, when I went to cut into the finished pie, it turned out to be pie soup on the inside. [crying] The first time I used a recipe from our antique Betty Crocker book, and last night I tried one of the plain rhubarb pie recipes from the website posted in this thread. My next option is to go to a lattice top pie, but there's so much liquid, I have doubts that even that will fix the problem.

Does anyone have any idea why I keep getting pie soup? I make no claims to be a master baker, but I have never experienced anything like this with other pies.
 
I think you can either cook it first, to boil off some water (this is a good time to add some strawberries to sweeten it up), and/or add some strawberry Jello to thicken it when it cools. This is just a guess, and I'll ask my mother who knows this stuff better than me; plus we need to write this down for the future.
 
Nicole said:
Oh Rhubarb afficiandos, help!

We put some rhubarb here awhile back and it is growing happily and I have had success making jam with it. The problem is pies! I tried to make a pie last year and again last night - both times, when I went to cut into the finished pie, it turned out to be pie soup on the inside.
.
Click to expand...

Put a couple tablespoons of cornstarch in. How much flour are you using now?
 
Mass-diver said:
Put a couple tablespoons of cornstarch in. How much flour are you using now?
Click to expand...

I tried this one, from rhubarbinfo.com last night:

Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients:

4 Cups Young Rhubarb, Unpeeled & Diced
1 Tbls Butter
1 tsp Orange Rind, Grated
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
2 9" Unbaked Pie Crusts
2 Cups Sugar

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line the pie pan (9") with one pie crust shell. Mix all the ingredients for the filling together and pour into the pie crust. Top with the second pie crust shell. Cut several decorative vents or slashes in the upper crust. Seal the two crusts together around the edges. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake about 20 minutes longer.


It wasn't the least bit watery when it went in the oven. When it came out, the pie was at least half full of liquid.

Random thought: any chance the problem is the fresh rhubarb? Maybe I need to harvest the night before and let it sit out before using it?
 
Fresh rubarb has worked fine for me in the past.

Try this - sprinkle the bottom of the crust with flour - then, instead of using flour in the receipt, use 7 tablespoons of cornstarch. I would also add some cinnamon (at least a tablespoon). Taste the sugar mixture and adjust as needed - 1.5cups of white sugar and 0.5 cups of brown sugar would be a nice move. For my taste - some strawberries are a must too :)
 
I'll reiterate, you can try cooking up the rhubarb with some strawberries, add strawberry jello mix, but no water. You can lessen the sugar amount to make up for the sugar in the Jello. After a few pies, you'll get it right. Make sure to have a LOT of vanilla ice cream on hand. Make up a bunch of the filling and freeze it, and have the pies whenever you wish, on demand. In fact, this would be a great idea for after the spicy crayfish feed!
 
Mass-diver said:
Fresh rubarb has worked fine for me in the past.

Try this - sprinkle the bottom of the crust with flour - then, instead of using flour in the receipt, use 7 tablespoons of cornstarch. I would also add some cinnamon (at least a tablespoon). Taste the sugar mixture and adjust as needed - 1.5cups of white sugar and 0.5 cups of brown sugar would be a nice move. For my taste - some strawberries are a must too :)
Click to expand...

I got around to trying this awhile back and it did the trick. Still a wet pie, but now well within "wet pie" range as opposed to "soup with a crust lid". Thanks!![smile] We'll actually dial the sugar back a bit next time - we went with all rhubarb, no strawberries and 2 cups of sugar was almost swamping the taste of the rhubarb. Needs a bit more bite.
 
Nicole said:
I got around to trying this awhile back and it did the trick. Still a wet pie, but now well within "wet pie" range as opposed to "soup with a crust lid". Thanks!![smile] We'll actually dial the sugar back a bit next time - we went with all rhubarb, no strawberries and 2 cups of sugar was almost swamping the taste of the rhubarb. Needs a bit more bite.
Click to expand...

I've been baking rhubarb pies for a while and here's a couple of things I learned - freeze the rhubarb ahead of time and when you thaw it out the juice will be liberated. You can add it back in as needed. The frozen stuff tastes similar to fresh.

If you want to use fresh rhubarb, try instant cook tapoica instead of cornstarch. I cook ~ half rhubarb with strawberries and add tapioca to get it going then fill the crust with the remaining fruit. I tried the orange zest last time, didn't much care for it but perhaps I added too much.

Got another batch of rhubarb going now, need to figure out what to do with it. Damn stuff has been growing like crazy all summer.
 
Rhubarb is the food of the gods... my only regret in finding this thread is that I'm 6 months too late to get some of the transplants that were being dug up. I had started some indoors in the spring, but that died when it didn't get watered when we went on vacation, so I'll have to start from scratch again. Two years in a long time to wait for productive plants!

I'm a rhubarb purist when it comes to my pies... 4-5 heaping cups of rhubarb, about 1 1/3 cups of sugar and 6 tablespoons of flour. A very simple, but delicious recipe!
 
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