Name: Rhubarb Toast
Ingredients: rhubarb stalks; water; stoned dates; English currants; toasted bread

Why it works: Dates and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 100 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rhubarb Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Peel and cut the rhubarb stalks into pieces.
Place the rhubarb in a saucepan and add a little water.
Add the stoned dates and washed English currants.
Cook until the rhubarb is tender.
Pour the mixture over the toasted bread.

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.

Dates + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together100 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Dates + curranttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together139 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Rhubarb + datestop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Currant + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,398 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Rhubarb + breadtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together66 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).