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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
Peel and wash the rhubarb, then sweeten to taste and let it stand.
In a bowl, mix flour and salt, then cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Stir in ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together.
Assemble and bake
Roll out pastry and line bottom of pie plate.
Place rhubarb and syrup formed from sugar on pastry.
Cut strips of pastry and lay them across top of rhubarb.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the crust as its proteins hydrate and bind into dough.
- Unsalted butter
- Stays in cold pieces that melt in the oven, creating flaky layers in the crust.
- Rhubarb
- Provides the tart filling; its juices form the syrup that sets the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart rhubarb and draws out juice that forms the filling syrup.
- Ice water
- Hydrates the flour just enough to bind the dough while keeping it tender.
The step that matters
Keeping the butter cold while cutting it in. Cold butter stays in solid pieces that melt during baking and leave flaky layers. Warm butter blends into the flour, making the crust tough and dense.
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Rhubarbthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter. 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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