the quintessential British baked pudding: forced Yorkshire rhubarb sweetened and spiced beneath a butter-and-oat crumble topping, baked until the fruit is tender and the crust is golden and shattering, the defining pudding of the Rhubarb Triangle tradition
Origin: The Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle — Wakefield, Leeds, and Bradford, West Riding
From the journey of Rhubarb.
The crumble (a thick, rubbed topping of flour, butter, and sugar baked over fruit in a deep dish) emerged in Britain during the Second World War as a pragmatic substitute for the pastry pie: pastry requires more fat and more careful handling than wartime kitchens could reliably supply, while the crumble topping achieves a similar effect (a crisp, baked crust over fruit) with far less butter and none of the skill. What began as a wartime expedient became, in the decades that followed, one of the most enduring and most beloved categories of British dessert; today a 'crumble' is as likely as a 'pie' to describe a fruit baked pudding in a British kitchen, and in many contexts it is preferred. Rhubarb is the crumble fruit par excellence. Its tartness, which requires the sweetness of a crumble topping to balance it, and its tendency to collapse to a soft, yielding texture that contrasts beautifully with the crumble's crunch, make it a better candidate for the form than the softer, more forgiving fruits (apple, pear, stone fruits) that also receive it. Yorkshire forced rhubarb (the pale crimson-stalked winter product of the Rhubarb Triangle, harvested by candlelight to prevent any photosynthesis, tender and jewel-bright) makes the finest possible rhubarb crumble: the stalks are delicate enough to cook through in the same time the topping takes to brown, the colour is spectacular, and the flavour is less aggressive and more nuanced than the thick, dark-stalked summer rhubarb. Rolled oats in the topping add a pleasing texture and a slight nuttiness that goes especially well with the rhubarb's acidity.
The addition of stem ginger (2–3 balls, finely chopped, added to the rhubarb layer) transforms this into a rhubarb and ginger crumble of even greater warmth and complexity. A handful of toasted almonds or hazelnuts added to the crumble topping with the oats adds further texture. For a thicker, more custardy fruit layer, toss the rhubarb with 1 tbsp cornflour along with the sugar before baking; this thickens the juices into a syrupy sauce rather than a runny liquid, which some prefer.
Mapping Culinary History
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