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Dessert

Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie made with rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, orange zest, and optional baking soda, baked in a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

Why it works: Rhubarb and orange work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 299 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Pour boiling water over the rhubarb and let it stand for 20 minutes, then drain.

  2. Repeat the process with boiling water to extract oxalic acid.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix sugar with cornstarch, nutmeg, and orange zest.

  2. Combine with the rhubarb and place in a pie crust.

  3. Top with the second crust and bake at 400°F (200°C) until 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. Rhubarb + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Rhubarb + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together177 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

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

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavour and bulk of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the rhubarb's sourness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the juices released by the rhubarb as the pie bakes.
Orange zest
Adds bright aromatic oil that complements the rhubarb.

The step that matters

Pouring boiling water over the rhubarb. Rhubarb's juices carry oxalic acid and a lot of liquid. Blanching and draining reduces excess moisture, which helps keep the filling from running and the crust from going soggy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, orange. 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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