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Stuffed Egg Plant

A baked eggplant stuffed with pork, breadcrumbs, and herbs, served with a cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed 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 the eggplant

  1. Parboil the eggplants for 10 minutes.

  2. Slit the eggplants down the side and remove the seeds.

  3. Prop open the slit with a piece of clean wood and soak in cold saltwater.

Make and add the stuffing

  1. Make stuffing by mixing bread crumbs, fat pork, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and onion.

  2. Moisten the stuffing with cream and bind it with the beaten egg.

  3. Fill the eggplants with the stuffing and tie the slit shut with soft thread.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed eggplants in a dripping pan with a little water and bake at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Baste with butter and water while baking.

  3. Test for tenderness with a straw.

  4. For the gravy, add 3 tablespoons of cream to the pan drippings, thicken with flour, and stir in chopped parsley.

  5. Boil once and pour over the eggplants.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Eggplant + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Eggplant + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplants
Form the edible shell that softens and holds the stuffing during baking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the cream and drippings, giving the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Fat pork
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cut and served.
Cream
Moistens the stuffing and later enriches the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the pan drippings into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Test for tenderness with a straw. Eggplant flesh must be fully soft for a tender bite. A straw or skewer passes easily through cooked flesh, so testing avoids serving firm or undercooked eggplant.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (eggplant, bread, pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, bread, pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, cream. 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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