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 ↓
Fried Egg Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggplant
Slice the eggplant into ⅓ inch thick slices.
Place the slices in a deep dish and cover with salted water.
Let them stand for 1 hour.
Drain the slices and season with black pepper.
Coat and fry
Dip each slice in the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry in boiling oil or butter for 10 minutes 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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,123 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Eggplant + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together265 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggplant
- Forms the tender interior that contrasts with the crisp coating.
- Beaten egg
- Binds the bread crumbs to the slices so the coating adheres during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
The step that matters
Frying in hot oil or butter. The fat must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly. If it is too cool, the crumbs absorb oil and turn greasy, while the eggplant inside stays soft.
Swap the eggplant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg, bread, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Chivefits better
- Eggplantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, bread, butter. 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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