Name: Rhubarb Pudding
Ingredients: Butter for greasing; Bread, sliced; Rhubarb, cut into small pieces; Sugar; ½ cup water

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Grease a pudding dish with butter.
Layer the bottom with slices of bread and butter.
Add a layer of uncooked rhubarb and sprinkle with sugar.
Repeat the layers until the dish is full, finishing with bread and butter on top.
Pour ½ cup of water over the entire dish.

Bake and serve

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve warm, not hot.

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.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Bread + rhubarbtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together66 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Butter + rhubarbtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 moist fruit filling that softens during baking.
Bread: Soaks up the juices and sugar, forming a soft, pudding-like structure between the layers.
Sugar: Sweetens the rhubarb and helps draw out its juices as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the top bread layer brown lightly in the oven.