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Fried Eggplant

Fried eggplant slices coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Fried Eggplant

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 Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the eggplant thickly and slice it into ¼-inch thick slices.

  2. Soak the slices in salted water for 15 to 30 minutes.

Coat

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg and add the milk.

  2. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg mixture, then roll them in cracker or bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the coated slices in hot butter and lard until golden brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

Eggplant
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming soft inside as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the milk and crumbs to the eggplant slices so the coating sticks.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Butter and lard
Conduct heat for frying and promote browning of the coating.

The step that matters

Fry the coated slices in hot butter and lard. If the fat is not hot enough, the crumb coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Starting with hot fat sets the coating quickly, so it browns and stays crisp while the eggplant cooks through.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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