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Stuffed Eggplant

A baked eggplant stuffed with breadcrumbs, pork, herbs, and onions, simmered in broth and finished with a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Parboil the eggplant for 10 minutes.

  2. Slit the eggplant down the side.

  3. Remove the seeds.

  4. Prop open the cut with a piece of clean wood.

  5. Soak the eggplant in salt water for 1 hour.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the eggplant with a mixture of breadcrumbs, fat salt pork, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and onion.

  2. Moisten the stuffing with gravy.

  3. Tie the eggplant closed with soft string.

  4. Place the eggplant in a baking dish with weak broth.

  5. Baste the eggplant frequently with butter and water.

  6. Baste the eggplant with gravy.

  7. Baste the eggplant twice with butter at the end.

Make and serve the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine gravy with butter rolled in flour.

  2. Bring the gravy mixture to a boil.

  3. Add milk or cream to the gravy.

  4. Boil the gravy briefly.

  5. Pour the gravy over the eggplant.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Eggplant + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Eggplant + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 the dish, and its flesh softens and absorbs the stuffing and basting liquids.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and fat, giving the stuffing body and a light, crumbly texture.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the stuffing moist during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the surface during repeated basting.
Flour
Thickens the gravy when rolled into butter and cooked with the liquid.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy briefly after adding milk or cream. Milk and cream can curdle or separate if overheated, so the gravy should be brought to a boil and then only briefly boiled to keep it smooth while the flour thickens it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (eggplant, pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, butter, flour. 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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