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Fried Eggplant

A dish of eggplant slices battered in egg, milk, and flour, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Fried Eggplant

Why it works: Eggplant and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 371 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Slice the eggplant into ½-inch thick slices.

  2. Soak the slices in salt water for 1 hour.

  3. Place a heavy plate on top to keep the slices submerged.

  4. Peel each slice of eggplant.

  5. Pat the eggplant slices dry.

Batter and fry

  1. In a bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, salt, and enough flour to create a thin batter.

  2. Dip each slice into the batter.

  3. Fry the battered slices in hot oil until golden brown.

  4. Drain the fried slices on paper towels.

Serve

  1. Serve on a heated flat dish.

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. Eggplant + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together371 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Eggplant + milktop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set and coat the slices.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it clings to the slices and crisps when fried.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter, giving a smoother, more tender coating.
Eggplant
Its spongy flesh absorbs the batter and softens as it cooks inside the crust.

The step that matters

Drying the slices before battering. Surface water keeps the batter from sticking and turns the coating soggy and greasy, so the slices should be patted dry before dipping.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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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