Why it works: Rhubarb and flour 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 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
Line a pie dish with the crust.
Fill the crust with the rhubarb pieces.
In a bowl, mix sugar, water, flour, egg yolk, and butter until smooth.
Pour the batter over the rhubarb.
Bake and top
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven without a top crust until set.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Spread the egg white mixture on top and return to the oven to brown lightly.
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.
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Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together670 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Rhubarb
- Provides the tart fruit that forms the body of the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter so it sets rather than running out over the fruit.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps the batter set into a smooth custard.
- Egg whites
- Beaten with sugar to form a stiff meringue that browns on top.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the rhubarb.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks; under-beaten whites stay runny and will not form a stable meringue that browns evenly on top of the pie.
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Rhubarbthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, butter. 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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