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Fried Eggplant

Fried slices of eggplant coated in crumbs and egg, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Fried Eggplant

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Fried Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Cut the eggplants into ¼-inch thick slices.

  2. Soak the slices in cold water with salt for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the eggplant slices.

  4. Lay the drained slices on a napkin.

Bread and fry

  1. Prepare cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Beat one egg in a bowl.

  3. Dip each slice in the crumbs.

  4. Dip each slice in the beaten egg.

  5. Coat each slice again with crumbs.

  6. Heat butter in a frying pan until hot.

  7. Fry the slices for about 10 minutes until light 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Eggplant + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together265 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Eggplant + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the tender, mild body of the dish once cooked through.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot butter.
Egg
Binds the crumbs to the slices so the coating holds during frying.
Butter
Conducts heat to brown the coating and adds rich flavour.

The step that matters

Dip each slice in the beaten egg before the second crumb coating. Eggplant is spongy and holds water, so slices must be well drained first. Moisture left on the surface makes the egg and crumbs slide off, leaving a soggy, uneven crust in the hot butter.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

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