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Stuffed Eggplant

A baked eggplant stuffed with chicken, pine nuts, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Eggplant and pine share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggplant

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Parboil the eggplant for 10 minutes.

  2. Place the eggplant in ice-cold salted water for 1 hour.

  3. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and pulp, leaving ½ inch thick walls.

Make and fill the stuffing

  1. Rub the pulp through a colander and mix in the minced chicken, pine nuts, salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs.

  2. Fill the eggplant halves with the stuffing and bind them with soft string.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed eggplant halves in a baking dish with water or stock, then cover the dish.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Optionally, butter the eggplant and sprinkle with breadcrumbs halfway through baking, then brown lightly.

  4. Carefully remove the string and serve.

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. Eggplant + pinetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pine + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pine + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the edible shell and, once pulped, adds moisture and body to the stuffing.
Minced chicken
Provides protein that firms up during baking, giving the stuffing structure.
Pine nuts
Add fat and a rich, nutty flavour and some chew to the stuffing.
Fine dry breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture from the pulp and chicken, helping the stuffing hold together.

The step that matters

Covering the dish while baking. The covered dish traps steam so the eggplant cooks through and the stuffing stays moist; uncovered, the surface can dry out before the eggplant softens.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pine, pepper, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pine, pepper, 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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