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 ↓
Mother's Pie-plant 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the pie
In a bowl, mix the cooked rhubarb, egg yolks, sugar, and flour until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
Bake until set, about 30-40 minutes.
Top and finish
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and frost the pie with them after baking.
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.
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Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together670 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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,852 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour 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
- Cooked rhubarb
- Provides the tart fruit flavor and the bulk of the filling.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling as they set, giving it a custard-like body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the rhubarb.
- Flour
- Stabilizes the filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks to form a light, browned meringue topping.
The step that matters
Baking until set. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, so the filling must reach a set state without overbaking. Underbaked filling stays runny, while overbaking can make the yolks curdle and weep liquid.
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour):
- Jalapenofits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Rhubarbthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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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