Name: Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients: 4 cups rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces; ½ cup sugar; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 pie crust

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Remove the stalks of rhubarb without cutting them to avoid damaging the roots.
Peel the outer skin off the rhubarb, then wash the pieces in cold water.

Assemble and bake

Place the rhubarb pieces evenly in the pie crust.
Sprinkle flour and sugar over the rhubarb, and add small pieces of butter.
Cover with another pie crust and bake at 300°F (150°C) until 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.

Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together670 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Flour and butter 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 main tart flavor and most of the filling's moisture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the rhubarb's sourness and helps draw out juice.
Flour: Thickens the juices released by the rhubarb so the filling holds together.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the filling taste rounded.
Pie crust: Forms the base and top that contain the filling and brown in the oven.