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Dessert

Rhubarb, Gooseberry, Plum, and Currant Pie

A fruit pie made with rhubarb, gooseberries, plums, currants, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and plum share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 40 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Rhubarb, Gooseberry, Plum, and Currant 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

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

  2. Prepare a pie crust and place it in a pie dish.

  3. Sprinkle some sugar on the bottom of the crust.

  4. Place a small cup in the center to catch juices.

Fill and assemble

  1. Add the rhubarb, gooseberries, plums, and currants into the crust.

  2. Sprinkle more sugar on top of the fruit.

  3. Add a little water to the pie.

  4. Wet the edges of the crust and place the top crust on, pinching the edges to seal.

  5. Cut a few slits in the top crust for steam to escape.

Bake

  1. Bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly.

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 + plumtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Plum + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Sugar + rhubarbtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + plumtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,313 recipes

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

  5. Rhubarb + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Adds tart flavour and bulk to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out juices as it dissolves.
Gooseberries
Contribute tartness and a firm texture to the filling.
Plums
Add sweetness and juiciness to the filling.
Currants
Add concentrated tartness and deep colour to the filling.
Pie crust
Forms the structure that holds the fruit and juices while baking.

The step that matters

Venting the top crust. Cut slits in the top crust so steam can escape. Without vents, trapped steam can build pressure, lift or split the crust, and make the juicy fruit filling leak out unevenly during baking.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rhubarb, plum. 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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