Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fried Eggplant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the eggplants into ¼ inch thick slices.
Soak the slices in cold water with salt for 30 minutes.
Drain the slices and lay them on a napkin.
Coat and fry
Dip each slice in the bread crumbs, then in the beaten egg, and coat again with crumbs.
Heat butter in a frying pan until hot.
Fry the slices for about 10 minutes until light brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh purple eggplants
- Provides the main body; its soft, spongy flesh turns tender when fried.
- Beaten egg
- Acts as a binder that helps the crumb coating adhere to the slices.
- Cracker or bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the surface.
The step that matters
Heat the butter until hot before frying. Slices placed in cool fat soak up grease and become soggy, and the crumb coating can slide off. Hot fat sears the coating quickly so it crisps and browns.
“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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