Name: Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup white sugar; 2 teaspoons flour; 4 cups rhubarb, cut into small pieces; 1 lemon, grated rind and juice; 2 egg yolks

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 Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Mix 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of flour together.
Sprinkle the mixture over the bottom crust.
Add the cut rhubarb on top.
Sprinkle another 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of flour over the rhubarb.

Bake and finish

Bake for 30 minutes.
Alternatively, stew the rhubarb, sweeten it, and add the grated rind and juice of 1 lemon and 2 egg yolks.
Bake and frost like a lemon pie.

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.

Flour + rhubarbtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together670 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together546 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 filling body and the main flavour of the pie.
White sugar: Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps draw out its juices.
Flour: Thickens the juices released by the rhubarb so the filling sets rather than running.
Egg yolks: Enrich the filling and add richness and body to the set custard-like texture.