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To Stew Egg Plant

A stew of eggplant simmered in water, then baked with butter and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Stew Egg Plant

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Stew Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place whole eggplants in a pot of water and simmer until tender.

  2. Remove the eggplants from the water and let them cool.

  3. Wash the eggplants in a deep dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and some bread crumbs to the eggplants.

  2. Top with additional bread crumbs and brown in the oven.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Purple eggplants
Their flesh softens into a soft, creamy body when simmered until tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping in the oven and soak up some moisture.

The step that matters

Simmer until fully tender. Underdone eggplant stays firm and dense, so it will not stew into a soft, spoonable texture. Cooking it through before cooling and baking gives an even, creamy result.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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