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Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie with rhubarb filling baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rhubarb 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Peel and chop the rhubarb stalks.

  3. In a bowl, combine the rhubarb, ¾ cup sugar, and ¼ teaspoon salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

  2. For the under-crust, spread a layer of rhubarb, then sprinkle with ½ cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons bread crumbs.

  3. If desired, beat an egg and brush it over the top.

  4. Cover and bake until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden.

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.

  1. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

  3. Rhubarb + breadtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rhubarb + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 that defines the pie and bulk for the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps draw out its juices.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb excess juice from the rhubarb so the bottom crust stays less soggy.
Pie crust
Holds the filling and forms the golden, structured base of the pie.

The step that matters

Assembling the under-crust layer. Rhubarb releases a lot of liquid as it bakes. The bread crumbs and sugar layered beneath the filling soak up that juice, which helps prevent a soggy bottom crust.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, egg. 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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