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Eggplant in Creole Fashion

A baked stuffed eggplant filled with onions, mushrooms, peppers, eggs, and a tomato‑cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Eggplant and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Eggplant in Creole Fashion

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Boil the eggplant in water for 5 minutes, then drain and let cool.

  2. Cut off the top and scoop out the inside of the eggplant.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the onion in butter until soft, then add mushrooms and green peppers; cook for a few minutes without browning.

  2. Stir in the soaked bread and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper, and mix in the eggs.

  4. Fill the eggplant with the mixture and replace the top.

Wrap and bake

  1. Lay cheesecloth on a table, place thin slices of larding pork on it, and roll the eggplant in the cloth.

  2. Tie the cloth at both ends and place it in a deep round pan.

  3. Add tomatoes, butter, salt, sugar, pepper, onions, green peppers, and stock or sour cream to the pan.

  4. Cover tightly and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  5. Before serving, remove the eggplant from the cloth and place it on a warm dish.

  6. Garnish with baked tomatoes and potato balls, and serve the strained cooking tomatoes alongside.

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. Eggplant + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds its shape when baked inside the eggplant.
Stale bread
Soaked bread absorbs moisture and adds body to the filling.
Eggplant
Its soft, mild flesh is scooped out and becomes the vessel for the filling.
Tomatoes
Provide liquid and acidity to the cooking sauce surrounding the eggplant.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour. A tight cover traps steam so the eggplant cooks through and the filling sets gently in its moist environment rather than drying out.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, butter, mushroom, pepper, bread, egg, tomato. 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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