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Egg Plant

A stuffed eggplant filled with egg, onion, sugar, butter, pepper, and salt, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Egg Plant

Why it works: Eggplant and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,123 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and carefully remove the flesh without damaging the shell.

  2. Boil the eggplant in salted water until tender.

  3. While cooking, decorate the shell by notching or scalloping the edges with a sharp knife.

Fill and bake

  1. Drain the eggplant and mix the flesh with the beaten egg, chopped onion, sugar, butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Return the mixture to the shell and place it in a 400°F (200°C) oven to brown well.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Eggplant + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 soft, moist filling base once cooked and drained.
Egg
Binds the mashed eggplant filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Onion
Adds savory flavor and moisture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and promotes browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Drain the eggplant well before filling. Excess water from the boiled flesh thins the mixture and keeps the egg from setting firmly, so the filling can become loose and soggy in the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (eggplant, egg, sugar, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, egg, sugar, butter, pepper. 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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