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Dessert

Rhubarb Pie

A pie filled with rhubarb and dates, sweetened to taste.

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

Why it works: Dates and rhubarb share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a pie plate with the pie crust and rub it with a little flour.

  2. Cover the bottom with pitted dates.

  3. Wash and cut the rhubarb.

  4. Cover the rhubarb with boiling water and let it stand until cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the pie with the rhubarb and sweeten to taste.

  2. No additional water is needed for moisture.

  3. Bake with a top crust.

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. Dates + rhubarbtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

  3. Dates + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together985 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pie crust
Forms the base and top that hold the filling together.
Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavor and most of the bulk of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb filling.
Pitted dates
Add sweetness and a soft texture as they cook into the base.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar. 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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