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Dessert

Rhubarb Pie

A fruit pie made with rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch, butter, and a pinch of salt, baked in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Rhubarb Pie

Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rhubarb Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the rhubarb, cut off the root and top ends, peel, and cut into small pieces.

  2. Line a pie plate with pie crust.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the rhubarb in the pie crust and sprinkle with cornstarch, sugar, and salt.

  2. Dot the top with small pieces of butter.

  3. Wet the edges of the undercrust, cover with the upper crust, and press the edges together.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 35 minutes.

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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + rhubarbtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

  3. Rhubarb + buttertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavour and bulk that forms the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the juices released by the rhubarb as the pie bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps balance its acidity.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the filling as it melts over the top.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges of the top crust. Pressing the edges firmly together keeps juices from leaking out during baking, so the filling stays inside and thickens properly.

Swap the rhubarb

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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