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 Pie or Tart
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rhubarb
Remove the leaves from the rhubarb stalks and peel off the thin skin.
Cut the rhubarb into 1‑inch pieces and sprinkle a little sugar into a quart basin.
Cook the filling
In a saucepan, combine the rhubarb, sugar, and water.
Simmer gently, shaking the pan often until the rhubarb turns green.
Once cooled, place the rhubarb in a tart dish with just enough syrup to keep it moist.
Bake and serve
Cover with a light crust and bake until the crust is golden.
Once baked, quarter the crust and fill the dish with custard or cream.
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
- Provides the tart flavour and the bulk of the filling.
- Common lump sugar
- Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps form the syrup that keeps it moist.
- Light pie crust
- Encloses the filling and browns to a golden finish in the oven.
The step that matters
Simmering the rhubarb. Simmering gently and shaking the pan keeps the rhubarb pieces whole while the sugar draws out juice. Rough boiling would break them down into a mush.
“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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