Why it works: Rhubarb and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 670 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the filling
Mix the stewed rhubarb, sugar, flour, and egg yolk in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Bake until set.
Top and finish
Whip the egg white and mix with 3 tablespoons of sugar to create a frosting.
Spread the frosting on top and flavor with lemon.
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 + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together670 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rhubarb + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together546 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Stewed rhubarb
- Provides the tart fruit base that gives the pie its main flavor and bulk.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the rhubarb.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling as it heats so it sets rather than running.
- Egg yolk
- Helps bind and enrich the filling, adding richness and body as it sets.
- Egg white
- Whipped with sugar to form a light, glossy meringue-style frosting on top.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Underbaking leaves the flour and egg yolk thickened too little, so the filling runs when cut; overbaking can toughen the eggs and weep liquid. Watch for a filling that is set at the centre but still soft to a gentle jiggle.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, sugar, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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