Some food names are impossible not to love. I have never made a Brown Betty, but I relish the idea of a crumbly dark dessert with a female name. I am still trying to figure out the difference between a Slump and a Grunt. Both appeal to me as descriptors.

I was recently tickled to learn that there is a dessert called (I kid you not) a Mess. It is generally paired with the name Eton because it is thought to have originated at that prestigious English boarding school.

The basic Eton Mess is an easy to make jumble of strawberries, whipped cream, and crumbled meringue. No one is certain how it originated.

According to Southern Living magazine, “The generally-accepted story is that the strawberry, meringue, and cream pudding was dropped at an Eton v. Harrow cricket match in the late 19th century.

“Rather than waste the food, it was simply scooped up off the floor and served, smashed to bits, in individual bowls.”

Another version of the story involves a large dog (a labrador retriever) that sat on the mixture and squashed it. Boys being boys, the students decided that a little dog hair shouldn’t stand in the way of a perfectly good pudding and went ahead and ate the thing.

I blush to admit it, but I have had similar experiences to both of those. In one case, I dropped a Key-Lime Pie on the kitchen floor. Since the pie hadn’t been on the floor very long and the floor was very clean, I scooped it up and dubbed it Key-Lime Pudding.

On another occasion, a hungry cat named Al Fresco attacked part of a quiche I was preparing to serve to company. I did remove the part of the quiche that had come into contact with the cat’s mouth, but I served the rest to my guests.

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I recently discovered a version of the Eton Mess made with rhubarb instead of strawberries. I was taken with the idea, in part because I adore rhubarb in general and in part because it seemed to me that its slightly tart flavor would set off the sweet whipped cream and meringue perfectly.

The Rhubarb Mess is basically a version of a Rhubarb Fool with the addition of the crumbled meringue.

A Fool does not mean that the eater (or the cook) is silly. This dessert is the product of folding together a tart fruit mixture (traditionally in England gooseberries, but rhubarb is a perfect substitute) with either whipped cream or a soft custard.

Food historians believe that the Fool received its name from the French verb “fouler,” which means to crush. One crushes together the fruit and the custard or whipped cream into a luscious mixture.

I live to adapt. After thinking about the Mess and the Fool, therefore, I ended up sort of combining them into what I call a Messy Rhubarb Fool. It’s basically a rhubarb sundae with a base of meringue.

If you don’t want to create your own meringue shells for this dish, feel free to be a little Messy-er and crumble some store-bought meringue on top of your sundae.

I almost resorted to that tactic myself when I prepared this dish last week. Meringue prefers to be made in dry, sunny weather, something of which we have had a limited quantity this spring.

Happily for me and for my Messy Fool, the sun came out one morning long enough for me to haul my egg whites out of the freezer, defrost them, and whip them into meringue shells.

I loved the combination of tart, slightly stringy rhubarb; crisp yet chewy meringue; and smooth, cool ice cream. I hope you do, too.

You will note from the photos that the rhubarb I used for this recipe was a little on the green side. Next time I’ll look for redder stalks to make the Mess prettier. The flavor was just fine, however.

As I think about the name Messy Rhubarb Fool, it occurs to me that it could be my new nickname. I am indeed a tad messy, and I’m a fool for rhubarb.

Ingredients:

for the meringue base:

2 egg whites at room temperature

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

for the rhubarb:

4 cups chopped rhubarb (fairly small pieces)

1/2 cup sugar

the juice of 1/2 lemon

1 pinch salt

for assembly:

vanilla ice cream as needed

Instructions:

Early in the day, make the meringues. (As I noted above, if the day is humid you will probably be better off with store-bought meringues; meringues prefer dry weather.)

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Whip the egg whites until they are stiff but not dry. Slowly add the sugar, a little at a time. (If you add it too quickly, you may deflate your meringues.) When you have lovely peaks, stir in the vanilla.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a with sheet of paper cut from a brown-paper grocery bag. Spoon the beaten egg whites onto the sheet. You should have about 6 sizable meringues. (I had only 5 because I was using relatively small eggs.)

Using a spoon, make a little well in the center of each meringue. Nothing needs to look perfect. Remember, this dish is called messy!

Bake the meringues for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the closed, turned-off oven for at least 6 hours. (Overnight is fine.) Resist the temptation to open the oven door. This may cause your meringues to dry out.

Sometime in the intervening hours (or whenever you feel like it!), prepare the rhubarb. Place the cut rhubarb in a non-aluminum saucepan; then add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir the mixture and leave it, covered, for an hour or so. The rhubarb and sugar will juice up.

Cook the rhubarb mixture over medium heat, stirring fairly frequently, until the rhubarb softens. Toss in the salt. Let the sauce come to room temperature and then refrigerate it.

To assemble your mess, place a meringue shell on a plate or in a bowl. Top with a generous scoop of ice cream and some rhubarb sauce. If you want to pop a little whipped cream on the top, feel free, but the dessert is lovely without it.

Serves 4 to 6. You will probably have leftover rhubarb sauce, which may be combined with whipped cream to make a Fool or with whipped cream and meringue to make a Mess. Or it may be eaten on its own.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.