Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Rhubarb, or Pie-plant 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. 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Chop the rhubarb finely and place it in a pudding dish.
Sprinkle sugar over the rhubarb.
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, mix sour milk, eggs, butter, and baking soda.
Gradually add flour until the batter is thick like cake batter.
Spread the batter over the rhubarb.
Bake until done, about 30-40 minutes.
Serve
Invert onto a platter so the rhubarb is on top.
Serve with sugar and 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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together670 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 fruit layer that sits on top after inverting.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the batter rise.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as it sets in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten and starch structure that gives the batter body and sets it.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the batter is thick like cake batter. Too much flour makes the batter dense and tough, while too little leaves it thin and it may not hold up over the rhubarb. Adding flour slowly lets you stop at the right thickness.
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, flour, sugar, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Rhubarbthe original
- Capersfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, flour, sugar, 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.
More rhubarb pudding recipes
You might also like
Rhubarb Pie152 recipes
Rhubarb Marmalade35 recipes
Rhubarb Jelly28 recipes
White Cake431 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.