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Baked Egg Plant

A baked dish of mashed eggplant layered with eggs, green pepper, butter, and breadcrumbs, finished with milk.

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

  1. Soak the eggplant in salted water, then peel and boil until tender.

  2. Mash the eggplant finely.

  3. Butter a baking dish.

Assemble

  1. Layer the mashed eggplant in the baking dish.

  2. Beat the eggs and mix them into the eggplant.

  3. Add a layer of chopped green pepper.

  4. Add a layer of butter.

  5. Season with coarse sea salt.

  6. Add another layer of mashed eggplant on top.

  7. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the layer of peppers.

  8. Pour milk over the entire dish.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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 bulk of the dish, giving a soft, mashed body once cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mashed eggplant and set during baking to hold the layers together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and brown on the surface for a crisp, golden top.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the layers tender as the dish bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown.

The step that matters

Mash the eggplant finely. Eggplant that stays in large pieces leaves air pockets and uneven texture, so the layers may not bind or set evenly. Fine mashing gives a smooth, cohesive body that holds together when baked.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

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