Name: Fresh Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients: 2 cups tender rhubarb, cut into ¼-inch lengths; 2 tablespoons flour; 3 teaspoons butter; 1½ cups sugar; Flake 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 ↓

Fresh Rhubarb Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a pie pan with flake pie crust, treating the bottom with flour.
In a bowl, mix rhubarb, sugar, and flour together.
Place the mixture in the pie shell, dot with butter, and press the butter down into the rhubarb mixture.

Bake and serve

Cover with a top crust and bake for 10 minutes.
Reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) and continue baking until done.
Serve on plates dusted with confectioners' sugar.

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.

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).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter + sugartop 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 tart flavor and the bulk of the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the rhubarb.
Flour: Thickens the juices released by the rhubarb as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat to the filling.

The step that matters

Cover with a top crust and bake for 10 minutes. Starting at a hot 400°F sets the crust and begins thickening the juices quickly. Lowering the heat afterward lets the rhubarb cook through without the crust over-browning or the filling boiling over.