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Stuffed Egg Plants

A baked dish of eggplant halves filled with bread, tomato, onion, parsley, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Egg Plants

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eggplants

  1. Halve and parboil the eggplants until soft enough for a fork to enter.

  2. Remove the eggplants from the water and let them cool.

  3. Carefully cut the inside of the eggplants without breaking the skin.

Make the filling

  1. Squeeze the soaked bread to remove excess water and mix it with the eggplant pulp.

  2. Add the chopped tomato, onion juice, parsley, and eggs.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the eggplant halves with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle with toasted bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until heated through.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Eggplant + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplants
Form the edible shell that holds the filling while the flesh softens and cooks.
Eggs
Bind the filling so it sets lightly and holds its shape when baked.
Bread
Soaked and squeezed, it adds body and helps the filling stay moist and tender.
Tomato
Adds moisture and acidity that brighten the filling as it cooks.
Onion
Adds savory sharpness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Cut the eggplant without breaking the skin. The skin acts as the container for the filling. A torn shell lets the filling leak out and dry or scorch in the oven, so cut the flesh gently after the eggplants have cooled enough to handle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (eggplant, bread, tomato, egg, parsley, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, bread, tomato, egg, parsley, pepper. 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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