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Dessert

Rhubarb Pie, Cooked

A baked pie filled with cooked, mashed rhubarb and optional spices, topped with a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pie, Cooked

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Skin the rhubarb stalks and cut them into small pieces.

  2. Wash the pieces and place them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them.

  3. Cook until soft, then mash the rhubarb finely.

  4. Stir in a small piece of butter and let it cool.

  5. Sweeten to taste and add lemon peel, cinnamon, or nutmeg if desired.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie plate with the crust, fill it with the rhubarb mixture, and cover with another crust.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  3. Sift sugar over the pie when serving.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rhubarb + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb stalks
Provide the main tart filling that is cooked soft and mashed.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, more rounded flavor to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and balances its acidity.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and forms the structure of the pie.

The step that matters

Cooling the filling before assembling. Rhubarb releases a lot of liquid when cooked. Letting the mixture cool before it goes into the crust helps it thicken and keeps the bottom crust from turning soggy.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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