Name: Raspberries and Rhubarb
Ingredients: 3 pounds rhubarb; 1 pound raspberries; 3 pounds sugar

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 ↓

Raspberries and Rhubarb

Ingredients

3 pounds rhubarb
1 pound raspberries
3 pounds sugar

Directions

Boil the rhubarb for 20 minutes.
Add the raspberries to the pot.
Stir in the sugar until dissolved.

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.

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: Provides tart flavour and breaks down into a soft, saucy pulp when cooked.
Raspberries: Add fruity aroma, bright colour and flavour to the compote.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the tart rhubarb and helps form a syrupy texture.

“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.