Name: Ellen's Pudding, or Rhubarb Tart
Ingredients: 1 pint stewed rhubarb; 4 ounces sugar; ½ pint cream; 2 ounces crushed crackers; 3 eggs

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Ellen's Pudding, or Rhubarb Tart

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 filling

Stew the rhubarb and strain it through a sieve.
Beat the eggs well, then mix with the sugar and cream.
Stir the cracker crumbs into the rhubarb mixture and add the other ingredients.

Bake

Line a pie plate with pastry and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Rhubarb + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together297 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Eggs: Beaten eggs bind the filling and help it set as it bakes.
Rhubarb: Stewed rhubarb supplies the tart flavour and most of the filling's moisture.
Sugar: Sugar sweetens the tart and balances the sourness of the rhubarb.
Cream: Cream adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the filling.
Crushed crackers: Cracker crumbs soak up liquid and give the filling body.