The Simple, Stunning Way to Level Up Breakfast (and Dessert)

Rhubarb can appear dramatically more vibrant in restaurant desserts than when cooked at home. The difference comes from growing methods. Outdoor rhubarb is often green with some red streaking, while forced rhubarb is grown in winter and spring in heated sheds or under a forcer or bucket in complete darkness so it cannot photosynthesize. This produces ruby stalks that are sweeter and more tender. Forced rhubarb has become more common in North America. In cooking, forced and regular rhubarb can be used interchangeably, but forced rhubarb may require less sugar. Roasting sliced rhubarb with a little sugar softens it without turning it to mush, and the melted sugar forms a syrup that ranges from geranium pink to a more delicate blush depending on the type.

"Deeply red rhubarb, called forced rhubarb, is typically grown in winter and spring in heated sheds (or under a rhubarb forcer or overturned bucket) in complete darkness so that the plants can't photosynthesize. This produces ruby stalks that are sweeter and more tender than regular outdoor rhubarb. The technique is thought to have been developed in Yorkshire, England, which has been famous for forced rhubarb since the 19th century. The practice has become more common in North America over the past decade."

"If you see scarlet rhubarb for sale in later winter or early spring, it's probably been forced. In the kitchen, forced rhubarb and regular rhubarb can be used interchangeably, though since the forced stalks are sweeter, you might cut down on the sugar. My favorite way to show off either kind is to roast it, which softens the stalks without turning them to mush."

"You don't need to add any liquid, just toss sliced rhubarb with a little sugar, pop it in the oven and occasionally give it a stir. As the stalks roast, their sugar melts, turning them into a syrup that will be geranium pink if you've used forced rhubarb and more delicately blushing if you haven't."

"Traditionally grown rhubarb — the slim stalks I buy at the farmers' market — is often green, streaked here and there with red. Yet whenever I cooked rhubarb at home, it melted into a rather muted-looking mass. Why was restaurant rhubarb so much more vibrant? It turns out that how rhubarb is grown affects its color and texture."

Read at cooking.nytimes.com