Name: Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients: Rhubarb stalks; Sugar; Pie crust

Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Rhubarb stalks
Sugar
Pie crust

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

Skin the rhubarb stalks and cut them into ½-inch lengths.
Fill the pie crust with the rhubarb.
Strew the rhubarb thickly with sugar.
Cover with the top crust.

Bake

Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 45 minutes.

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.

Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb stalks: Provides the tart flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the tart rhubarb and draws out moisture to form the filling.
Pie crust: Encloses the filling and holds its shape while it bakes.

“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.