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Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie with rhubarb, sugar, and sherry wine in a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb 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 filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a saucepan, combine the rhubarb, sugar, and sherry wine.

  3. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the rhubarb softens.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie dish with the bottom pie crust.

  2. Pour the cooled rhubarb mixture into the crust.

  3. Cover with the top pie crust and seal the edges.

  4. Bake in the preheated oven until the crust is golden brown, about 30-40 minutes.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Rhubarb + winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rhubarb + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 the bulk of the filling once cooked down.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps draw out its juices while cooking.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a layer of flavor to the rhubarb filling.
Pie crust
Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before filling the crust. Hot filling softens the raw pastry from underneath and can make the bottom crust soggy and underbaked.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, sherry, wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry, wine. 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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