Name: Egg Plant
Ingredients: 1 medium eggplant; coarse sea salt; 1 egg; bread crumbs; ½ lard; ½ butter; melted butter or egg sauce; hard boiled eggs for garnish

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Peel and slice the eggplant into thin rounds.
Sprinkle salt between each slice and cover with a bowl; let stand for 1 hour.
Rinse the slices with cold water and discard the dark liquid.
Dry each slice, dip in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry in equal parts lard and butter until golden brown.
Wash the spinach in several waters, then boil in a saucepan with a little salt for 15 minutes.
Drain and press out excess water, then place in a dish, creating a hollow center.
Serve with melted butter or egg sauce, garnished with sliced hard boiled eggs.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Eggplant + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together265 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Eggplant + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together507 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).