Name: Stuffed Egg Plant
Ingredients: 1 good sized eggplant; 1 cup grated bread crumbs; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ½ teaspoon chopped onion; ½ teaspoon chopped parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Plant

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the eggplant

Boil the eggplant for 10 minutes.
Once cooled, cut the eggplant in half lengthwise.
Scoop out the inside without breaking the skin.

Make the filling

In a frying pan, cook the butter, onion, and parsley for 3 minutes.
Add the finely chopped eggplant pulp and seasoning.
Cook for an additional 10 minutes while stirring frequently.
Stir in the beaten egg.
Remove from heat.

Bake and serve

Place the eggplant halves in a baking pan and fill with the mixture.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes or until browned.
Serve hot.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Eggplant + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together328 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,123 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant: Forms the edible shell and the pulp that is mixed into the filling.
Egg: Binds the filling so it holds together when baked.
Bread crumbs: Add body to the filling and form a browned topping on the surface.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the cooked filling and helps it brown.

The step that matters

Scoop out the inside without breaking the skin. The eggplant skin acts as the serving shell. A torn skin lets the filling leak out during baking and weakens the halves, so scoop gently and keep the walls intact.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

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

More stuffed eggplant recipes

Turkish 3 See all 156 →

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Stuffed Egg Plant