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Dessert

Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie with rhubarb, sugar, egg yolk, coconut butter or olive oil, flour, water, and pie crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Pour boiling water over the chopped rhubarb and let it sit for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain the water and add sugar, egg yolk, coconut butter (or olive oil), flour, and water. Mix well.

Bake

  1. Place the filling between two pie crusts.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until light brown.

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. Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rhubarb + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Coconut + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,315 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavor and bulk that the filling is built around.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the rhubarb.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the filling as it sets.
Flour
Thickens the juices released by the rhubarb so the filling holds together.
Coconut butter or olive oil
Adds fat, contributing moisture and a tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Draining the rhubarb after boiling water. Rhubarb releases a lot of liquid when cooked. Draining it after the brief soak removes excess water, which helps the flour thicken the filling instead of leaving the pie runny.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, egg, flour. 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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