Name: Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients: 1½ pounds rhubarb, chopped fine; 1 cup raisins, chopped fine; 3 cups brown sugar; butter; flour

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dish

Grease a pie dish with a little butter.
Dredge the bottom with a little flour before adding the filling.

Make and bake the pie

Mix the rhubarb, raisins, and brown sugar well.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pie dish.
Cover with a top crust and 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.

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together670 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rhubarb + raisintop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together47 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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 flavor and bulk that forms the filling.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the filling darken as it bakes.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
Flour: Dusted on the crust bottom to help absorb juices and keep the base from getting soggy.