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Dessert

Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie made with rhubarb, sugar, lemon, butter, and flour, baked in a double 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

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 the filling

  1. Combine rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice or extract in a bowl.

  2. Stir well.

  3. Let sit for a while.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a pie plate with the bottom crust.

  2. Fill it with the rhubarb mixture.

  3. Dot the top with small bits of butter.

  4. Dredge lightly with flour.

  5. Wet the edge of the crust with water.

  6. Place the top crust on.

  7. Seal the edges by pressing them together.

  8. Prick holes in the top crust with a fork.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 300°F (150°C) for about one hour.

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. Rhubarb + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 flavor and bulk that forms the pie's filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the rhubarb and draws out its juices while the pie bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and melts into the filling for a softer texture.
Flour
Dusted on top to lightly thicken the juices released by the rhubarb.

The step that matters

Prick holes in the top crust. Vents let steam escape during baking, so the filling does not build pressure and burst through the crust or make the crust soggy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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