Why it works: Rhubarb and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the rhubarb with sugar and let it stand overnight.
Strain the juice and bring it to a boil.
Once boiling, add the rhubarb and boil for 2 minutes.
If desired, dissolve cornstarch in a little water and add to the mixture to thicken.
Add cinnamon for flavor.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Rhubarb + cinnamontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovefits better
- Allspicefits better
- Rhubarbthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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