Skip to main content
Main

Fried Eggplant

Fried eggplant slices coated in flour or egg and cracker crumbs, then fried until brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Fried Eggplant

Why it works: Eggplant and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,123 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fried Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare the eggplant and cut it into very thin slices.

  2. Dust the slices with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Coat and fry

  1. Dredge the slices in flour, or dip them in beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry both sides in dripping until brown.

  3. Drain on brown paper and serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Eggplant + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together371 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Forms the tender interior of the slices once cooked through.
Flour
Creates a dry coating that helps the slices brown and crisp when fried.
Egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the slices so the coating adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Dripping (or oil)
Conducts heat to cook the slices and drive browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Frying both sides until brown. Eggplant is very porous and absorbs fat quickly, so it can turn greasy if the oil is not hot enough. Browning at a steady high heat seals the surface and gives a crisp, less oily result.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, egg. 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.

More fried eggplant recipes

Breaded 8Cakes 3 See all 173 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes