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Stuffed Eggplant

A baked eggplant halves filled with a ham, breadcrumb, and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Eggplant and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,123 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggplant

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 the filling

  1. Cut the eggplant in half and scoop out the insides.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the insides with minced ham and cover with water. Boil until soft, then drain the water.

  3. Add breadcrumbs, butter, minced onion, salt, and pepper to the mixture.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff each half of the eggplant with the mixture.

  2. Top each half with a small lump of butter and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 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 + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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 that holds the filling while it bakes.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the scooped-out eggplant filling.
Grated breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold together and firm up.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the filling and top brown during baking.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the eggplant insides until soft, then drain. Cooking softens the pulp so it mixes smoothly with the other filling ingredients. Draining removes excess water, which would otherwise make the filling wet and loose inside the shell.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, onion, 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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