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Stuffed Egg Plant

A baked eggplant stuffed with a mixture of egg, butter, breadcrumbs, onion, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stuffed Egg Plant

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Cook the eggplant in boiling salted water for 15 minutes.

  2. Cut a slice from the top and remove the pulp with a spoon.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the pulp and mix it with bread crumbs, butter, onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. If the mixture is too dry, add a little water and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Cool slightly and stir in the beaten egg.

Bake

  1. Fill the eggplant with the mixture, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 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 holds the filling while it bakes.
Beaten egg
Binds the filling so it holds together when cooled and baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body and a lightly crisp top.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the filling.

The step that matters

Cool slightly before adding the egg. If the filling is too hot, the beaten egg can scramble instead of blending smoothly, leaving an uneven, lumpy texture that will not bind well.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

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