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Baked Egg Plant

Slices of eggplant coated in egg and breadcrumbs, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Baked Egg Plant

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Baked Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the eggplant into slices ¾ inch thick.

  2. Soak the slices in salt water for at least 1 hour.

  3. Wipe the slices dry.

Coat

  1. Dip the slices into the beaten egg.

  2. Coat the slices with bread crumbs or cracker dust.

Bake

  1. Heat enough cooking fat in a pan to prevent sticking.

  2. Place the coated slices in the oven until cooked through.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  2. Eggplant + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together265 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into soft, tender flesh inside.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the crumbs adhere to the slices.
Bread crumbs or cracker dust
Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns in the oven.
Cooking fat
Conducts heat to the surface, promoting browning and preventing sticking.

The step that matters

Wipe the slices dry. Surface moisture keeps the egg and crumbs from adhering and steams the coating instead of letting it crisp and brown. Dry slices hold the coating and brown evenly.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread. 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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