Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Stuffed Egg Plant, Parisian Style
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Prepare the eggplants as in No. 683.
Make the stuffing
Melt the butter in a saucepan and lightly fry the chopped onions.
Add the chopped eggplant, chicken, pork, and marrow to the saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes.
Stir in the bread crumbs and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Mix in the egg yolks and chopped parsley.
Bake and serve
Stuff the eggplants with the mixture, top with bread crumbs and a piece of butter.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden and serve with reduced Madeira wine sauce.
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.
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Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,417 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Eggplant + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together53 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,123 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
- Eggs
- Egg yolks bind the stuffing so it holds its shape when baked.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture from the filling and give it a softer, more cohesive body.
- Chicken and pork
- Provide the meaty base and savory richness of the stuffing.
- Marrow
- Adds richness and fat that keeps the stuffing moist and tender.
- Onions
- Build a sweet, savory aromatic base when lightly fried in butter.
Swap the eggplant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, chicken, pork, bread, pepper, nutmeg):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Leekfits better
- Eggplantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, chicken, pork, bread, pepper, nutmeg. 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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