Why it works: Rhubarb and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 276 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Pie-plant Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the pie-plant into small pieces and place in the lower pie crust.
In a bowl, mix the egg, flour, sugar, and vanilla together until well combined.
Pour the mixture over the pie-plant in the crust.
Cover with the upper pie crust and seal the edges.
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.
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 + vanillatop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together276 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together670 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 (egg, flour, sugar, vanilla):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Rhubarbthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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