Why it works: Eggplant and egg work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 515 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Egg Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggplant
Slice the eggplant into 1/6-inch thick slices.
Soak the slices in salted water for 1 hour.
Press out the water.
Fry the slices
Dip the slices in batter or breadcrumbs.
Fry until brown.
Make the mash
Peel the eggplant.
Boil the eggplant until tender in salted water.
Mash the boiled eggplant.
Add 2 eggs to the mashed eggplant.
Fry the mixture.
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.
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Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 both the sliced and mashed versions, giving the dish its bulk.
- Eggs
- Bind the mashed eggplant so it holds together when fried.
- Batter or breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating on the slices during frying.
The step that matters
Press out the water. Soaking draws bitterness out of eggplant, but any water left inside dilutes the coating and spatters in hot oil, so the slices should be pressed dry before dipping and frying.
“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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