Name: Rhubarb Dumplings
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups flour; ½ cup shortening; 3 teaspoons baking powder; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ cup milk; 2 tablespoons sugar; rhubarb (enough to fill muffin pans half or ¾ full)

Why it works: Flour and rhubarb 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 Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the dumplings

In a bowl, mix flour, shortening, baking powder, salt, milk, and sugar until combined.
Fill muffin pans half or three-quarters full with rhubarb.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture on top of the rhubarb.

Bake

Bake until golden 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.

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.

Flour + rhubarbtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together670 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + rhubarbtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour: Forms the main structure of the dumpling batter as it bakes.
Shortening: Adds fat that keeps the dumplings tender and rich.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the dumplings rise in the oven.
Milk: Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and binds the batter.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown.
Rhubarb: Adds a tart, acidic flavour that balances the sweet batter.