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Dessert

Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie made with stewed rhubarb, sugar, flour, baking soda, heavy cream, and a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

Why it works: Rhubarb and flour 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 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the stewed rhubarb, sugar, flour, and baking soda.

  2. Fold in the heavy cream until well mixed.

  3. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

Assemble and bake

  1. Top with a criss-cross pattern using additional pie crust.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until 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. Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Rhubarb + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Stewed rhubarb
Provides the main tart fruit flavor and most of the filling's moisture and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the rhubarb.
Flour
Thickens the juices released by the rhubarb so the filling sets rather than running.
Baking soda
Raises the filling's pH, softening rhubarb's acidity and helping it brown slightly.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smoother, silkier texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the heavy cream until well mixed. Cream can curdle or separate if overworked or combined with acidic fruit unevenly. Gentle, thorough folding keeps the filling smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the rhubarb

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, cream. 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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