Why it works: Eggplant and egg work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 515 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Fried Egg Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and slice the eggplant into thin slices.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and place between two plates with a weight on top.
Leave for 1 to 2 hours.
Coat and fry
Dip the slices in egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.
Fry in deep oil until golden brown.
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.
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Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together515 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggplant
- Its flesh becomes tender and moist when fried, while the salting draws out excess water.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick to the eggplant slices.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot oil.
The step that matters
Salting and resting the eggplant. Salt draws water out of the slices, which reduces sogginess and keeps the coating from loosening. Skipping or shortening the rest leaves more moisture in the flesh, so the breading can slip off and the slices absorb more oil.
“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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