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Scalloped E^g Plant

A baked eggplant dish with breadcrumbs, cream, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Scalloped E^g Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Pare the eggplant.

  2. If large, divide into quarters; if small, divide into halves.

  3. Cook in boiling water until easily pierced with a straw, then drain in a colander.

  4. Transfer to a hot dish and beat with a fork until finely broken.

Mix and bake

  1. Measure the eggplant and add an equal quantity of grated bread crumbs, salt, and cream.

  2. Add the beaten egg and mix well.

  3. Place in an earthen pudding dish and bake until the egg is set and heated throughout, but not dry.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

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

  5. Eggplant + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together74 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 and provides its soft, tender texture.
Grated bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body so it holds together when baked.
Egg
Binds the mixture and sets on heating to give it a firm, sliceable structure.
Thick sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Bake until the egg is set and heated throughout, but not dry.. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, which sets the custard-like mixture. Baking past that point squeezes out moisture and leaves the dish dry and crumbly.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

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