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Baked Egg Plant

Slices of eggplant are salted, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Baked Egg Plant

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Baked 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

  1. Cut the eggplant into ¾‑inch thick slices and soak in salt water for at least 1 hour.

  2. Wipe the slices dry.

Coat the slices

  1. Dip the slices into beaten eggs.

  2. Coat the slices with bread crumbs or cracker dust.

  3. Heat enough cooking fat in a pan to prevent sticking.

  4. Season the slices to taste before cooking.

Bake

  1. Place the coated eggplant slices in the oven at 400 °F (200 °C) until cooked through.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Eggplant + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together265 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Forms the main body, turning soft and moist inside as it cooks.
Eggs
Act as a binder so the crumb coating sticks to the slices.
Bread crumbs or cracker dust
Form a coating that crisps and browns in the oven.
Cooking fat
Carries heat to the coating, promoting browning and preventing sticking.

The step that matters

Wipe the slices dry. Surface moisture stops the beaten egg and crumbs from adhering, so the coating can slide off. Excess water also turns the crust soggy instead of crisp, so drying the slices before dipping helps the coating stay on and brown.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread. 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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