Name: Rhubarb Fritters
Ingredients: pieces of rhubarb; frying batter; deep lard; powdered sugar; rum sauce

Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rhubarb Fritters

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Dip pieces of rhubarb in frying batter.
Fry in deep, hot lard until golden.
Drain excess oil.
Dust with powdered sugar and serve with rum sauce.

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.

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.

Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,908 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Rhubarb + rumtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
Rhubarb + saucetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together36 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).