Name: Rhubarb Pudding— No. 2
Ingredients: thin slices of bread; butter; rhubarb, cut into 2-inch lengths; sugar; ½ cup water

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pudding— No. 2

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble

Line a pudding dish with thin slices of buttered bread.
Layer the rhubarb and sprinkle with sugar.
Alternate layers of bread and rhubarb until the dish is full, with rhubarb on top.
Pour in ½ cup of water.

Bake and serve

Cover with a plate and bake for 30 minutes.
Serve with cream sauce.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Bread + rhubarbtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together66 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Butter + rhubarbtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together673 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

Thin slices of bread: Forms the layers that soak up the juices and hold the pudding together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the bread brown lightly and taste savoury-sweet.
Rhubarb: Provides the tart fruit flavour and moisture that cooks down into the pudding.
Sugar: Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps draw out its juices as it bakes.