Name: Stuffed Egg Plant
Ingredients: one cup of soft bread crumbs; a cup of tomatoes; a tablespoonful of butter; a dash of worcestershire sauce; two length- wise; 54 vegetables; salt; pepper

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 ↓

Stuffed Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

Boil an eggplant for twenty minutes, or until tender, in boiling, salted water.
Cut it lengthwise in two and remove pulp, keeping the shell shape.
Mash the pulp and season with salt and pepper.

Make the filling

Fry half an onion finely chopped in a little bacon fat.
Add a cup of tomatoes, half a small green pepper chopped fine, and seeds removed; cook until it begins to thicken.
Remove from heat and add the mashed pulp and one cup of soft bread crumbs.
Season again with a little more salt, a dusting of pepper, and a tablespoonful of butter.
Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce.

Bake and serve

Fill the shells, covering the tops with crumbs and bits of butter.
Bake in the oven for fifteen or twenty minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

714Calories

15 gProtein

27 gFat

102 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Vegetable	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant (in the method): Forms the edible shell and soft pulp that holds the filling.
Soft bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and bind the pulp, giving the filling body and a lighter texture.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity, thickening as they cook down into the filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the crumb topping brown in the oven.