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Fried Eggplant

Slices of eggplant coated in crumbs and egg, then fried until light brown.

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

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

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

  3. Prepare cracker or bread crumbs and beat an egg in a bowl.

  4. Drain the eggplant slices and lay them on a napkin.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each slice in the crumbs, then in the egg, and coat again with crumbs.

  2. Heat butter in a frying pan until hot.

  3. 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

Fresh eggplants
Provides the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender interior under the crisp coating.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden crust that browns during frying.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder that helps the crumbs adhere to the eggplant slices.
Butter
Conducts heat in the pan and adds fat for browning and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Drain the eggplant slices before coating. Eggplant soaked in water holds excess moisture, which can make the crumbs soggy and keep them from sticking. Draining and patting the slices dry helps the coating adhere and crisp when fried.

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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