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 Tart
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.
Prepare the rhubarb
Remove the skin from the rhubarb stalks.
Place the rhubarb in a dish.
Combine sugar and water to make a syrup and pour it over the rhubarb.
Simmer the rhubarb covered for 1 hour on low heat.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Assemble and bake
Fill a tart pastry with the cooled rhubarb mixture.
Bake the tart at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Forms the main filling and gives the tart its tart, fruity flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and balances the rhubarb's acidity.
- Tart pastry
- Forms the crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Simmering the rhubarb. Cooking the rhubarb gently in syrup softens the fibres and releases juices. If it simmers too hard, the pieces can break down into mush, and if it is not cooled before filling, the pastry can turn soggy.
“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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