IllustrationWhy it works: Rhubarb and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 638 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the filling
Chop the two cupfuls of rhubarb very finely.
Pour sufficient boiling water over the chopped rhubarb to cover it.
Let the rhubarb stand for two minutes, then drain it.
Add the well-beaten yolk of one egg, one tablespoonful of flour, and one cup of sugar to the drained rhubarb. Mix the mixture well.
Bake and finish
Bake the mixture with only a lower crust.
Make a meringue from the white of the egg.
Pour the meringue over the baked pie and brown it.
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. See the original page.
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Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Rhubarb + flourtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together638 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together104,138 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together89,462 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + eggtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together122,252 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rhubarb + sugartop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Flour and egg share little aroma chemistry, yet 104,138 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rhubarb
- Provides the tart flavour and the bulk of the pie filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps the filling set as it bakes.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling so it holds together when cut.
- Egg
- The yolk enriches and thickens the filling, while the white makes the meringue topping.
The step that matters
Draining the rhubarb after the boiling water. Rhubarb releases a lot of liquid as it cooks. Draining it well keeps the filling from becoming watery, so the flour can thicken it properly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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