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Baked Egg Plant

Eggplant halves filled with sautéed onion, breadcrumbs, and egg yolk, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Baked Egg Plant

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Baked Egg Plant

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. Parboil the eggplant in boiling salted water until tender but not soft.

  2. Cut the eggplant in half crosswise and carefully scoop out the inside without breaking the skin.

  3. In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of butter or fat, add the onion, and sauté until browned.

  4. Add the scooped eggplant, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper, and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Refill the eggplant shells with the mixture and place them in a baking dish.

  2. Baste with butter or sprinkle with cracker crumbs and bits of butter on top.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting often, until browned nicely.

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.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 soft filling that holds the dish together.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma when sautéed until browned.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the eggplant and help the filling hold its shape.
Egg yolk
Binds the filling so it sets softly rather than falling apart.
Fat or butter
Carries flavor and promotes browning on the surface during baking.

The step that matters

Scoop the eggplant without breaking the skin. The shells must stay intact to hold the filling; a torn shell lets the filling leak and dry out during baking.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, bread, egg, 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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