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Rhubarb Custard Pie

A custard pie made with stewed rhubarb, milk, egg yolks, butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 177 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Rhubarb Custard Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Slice the rhubarb into small pieces.

  2. Stew the rhubarb until tender, then mash it fine and press through a colander.

Make the custard and bake

  1. Add the remaining ingredients and beat the egg yolks well.

  2. Mix everything together and bake with one crust at 350°F (175°C) like a regular custard pie.

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.

  1. Rhubarb + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together177 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavour and most of the filling's body once stewed and mashed.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that the egg proteins set into a creamy custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set during baking and add richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the rhubarb.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer, smoother texture in the custard.

The step that matters

Stew, mash and press the rhubarb. Rhubarb stalks have fibres that stay stringy unless fully softened, and extra water loosens the custard. Mashing and pressing through a colander gives a smooth filling that sets evenly.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg. 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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