Name: Rhubarb Pudding
Ingredients: 1½ cups thick sour cream; ⅓ cup sugar; 1 egg; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups flour; coarse sea salt to taste; 1 pint finely chopped rhubarb; ⅓ cup sugar (for rhubarb mixture); 1 tablespoon flour (for rhubarb mixture)

Why it works: Flour and rhubarb match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 670 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pudding

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.

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the sour cream, sugar, egg, baking soda, flour, and salt until combined.
Spread half of the batter in a greased pan.

Add the rhubarb and bake

Combine the rhubarb with ⅓ cup sugar and 1 tablespoon flour.
Press this mixture into the batter.
Spread the remaining batter on top of the rhubarb.
Steam or bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked through.
Serve warm with sweetened cream.

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.

Flour + rhubarbtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together670 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + rhubarbtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together297 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Sour cream: Adds moisture and tang, keeping the batter tender and moist as it cooks.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the batter and rhubarb layers together.
Egg: Binds the batter and helps it set firm as it cooks.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to lift and lighten the pudding.
Rhubarb: Adds tart flavor and moisture that contrasts with the sweet batter.