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Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie made with rhubarb, sugar, butter, optional spices, and pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. If the rhubarb is young and tender, do not peel it.

  2. If the rhubarb is tough, peel and cut into ½-inch pieces.

  3. Line a pie plate with the crust and fill it with the rhubarb.

Assemble and bake

  1. Sprinkle with 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of butter.

  2. If desired, add cinnamon or nutmeg for flavor.

  3. Cover with another crust and seal the edges.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Rhubarb + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavour and the bulk of the filling that softens as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps draw out juice that forms the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a little fat that rounds out the filling's flavour.
Pie crust
Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cutting the rhubarb for a tough stalk. Tough rhubarb needs peeling and even ½-inch pieces so it cooks through at the same rate as the rest of the filling, avoiding stringy or raw pieces in the pie.

“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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