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Rhubarb Pie

A pie with rhubarb, sugar, and crust, baked with an egg wash.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. 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 the filling

  1. Remove the skin from the rhubarb and cut it into small pieces.

  2. In a shallow pan, cook the rhubarb quickly with the sugar.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a pie plate with the pie crust and wet the rim.

  2. Add the cold rhubarb mixture to the pie crust.

  3. Lay three strips of crust across the top, fastening the ends, then add three more strips to form diamond shapes.

Bake

  1. Add a rim of crust around the edge, wash with beaten egg, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rhubarb + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavor and the bulk of the filling's texture once cooked.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps draw out its juices as it cooks.
Pie crust
Forms the base and lattice top that hold the filling in place.
Egg
Beaten egg wash brushed on the crust promotes browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Cook the rhubarb quickly with the sugar. Rhubarb releases a lot of liquid when cooked. Cooking it briefly and then cooling it before filling helps reduce the juice that could make the crust soggy and the filling runny.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Rhubarbthe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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