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With Minced Meat

Eggplant slices are stuffed with a minced lamb or mutton mixture and baked or boiled with tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Eggplant and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

With Minced Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Slice the eggplant into 1-inch thick pieces.

  2. Fry the slices lightly in 1 tablespoon of butter.

  3. Arrange the slices in a deep flat pan, pressing down the centers with the back of a spoon to create hollows.

  4. Mince the meat and mix it with finely chopped onions, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  5. Fry the meat mixture in the remaining butter.

Assemble and cook

  1. Place 1 tablespoon of the fried mixture in each eggplant hollow and top with chopped tomatoes.

  2. Add a little water and boil on low heat or in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 to 20 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.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Eggplant + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the base and soft, tender body of the dish once cooked through.
Mutton or lamb
Provides the rich, savory meat filling that is browned in the butter.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, carrying flavor and giving the slices and filling a golden color.
Onions
Adds sweetness and aroma as they soften into the meat filling.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity that loosen and flavor the filling as it cooks.

The step that matters

Pressing the hollows in the eggplant slices. The hollows must be deep enough to hold the filling without it spilling out, while the slice walls stay intact. Frying the slices first softens them so they keep their shape during the final cooking.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, onion, tomato, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, onion, tomato, 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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