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To Dress Egg Plant

A fried eggplant dish made from boiled, mashed eggplant mixed with butter, eggs, flour, and seasonings, then fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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To Dress Egg Plant

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Dress Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Boil the eggplants in salted water.

  2. Peel the boiled eggplants and remove the insides.

  3. Mash the eggplant finely.

Make the batter

  1. Add a tablespoonful of butter, beaten eggs, and flour to the mash.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

Fry

  1. Heat lard until boiling.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the boiling lard and fry until brown like fritters.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

641Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
97 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Plantnot in our table0

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

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggplants (in the method)
Form the bulk of the fritters, providing the soft, moist interior once mashed and cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mashed eggplant together so the fritters hold their shape while frying.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly, helping it hold together and form a firmer crust.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the mash.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the fritters absorb more fat and turn greasy before they set and brown.

“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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