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Stuffed Eggplant

A baked dish of eggplant halves filled with a savory mixture of pulp, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggplant

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the eggplant in half and carefully remove the pulp without breaking the skin.

  2. Mix the pulp with salt, pepper, vinegar, onion, garlic, parsley, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a bowl.

  3. Pack the mixture tightly.

  4. Let the mixture sit for one hour.

  5. Heat the oil in a frying pan.

  6. Fry the mixture until tender, adding the remaining seasoning.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the eggplant shells with the mixture.

  2. Dot the filled shells with butter.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until the shells are tender.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant (in the method)
Its pulp is scooped out to form the shells and is mixed into the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling so it holds together when packed.
Egg
Binds the filling ingredients together, helping them set as they cook.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that flavour the filling as it cooks down.
Onion
Adds aroma and sweetness as it softens during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the filling until tender. Cooking the pulp and vegetables until tender drives off excess moisture so the filling holds its shape rather than making the shells soggy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, vinegar, egg, parsley, garlic, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, vinegar, egg, parsley, garlic, tomato. 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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