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Fried Egg Plant

Slices of eggplant are salted, coated in egg and flour, then fried.

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

Why it works: Eggplant and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,123 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fried Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the eggplant and soak it in salt water for about an hour.

  2. Season the slices with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the slices in egg, then coat with flour.

  2. Fry in hot fat until well cooked before removing from the pan.

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. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Eggplant + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together371 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the tender, soft interior that is the main body of the dish.
Egg
Binds the flour coating to the eggplant slices so it adheres during frying.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that crisps and browns when fried in hot fat.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat until well cooked before removing from the pan. Eggplant is spongy and absorbs oil readily; frying in hot fat until the slices are fully cooked and golden helps the coating set and prevents a greasy, undercooked interior.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg, flour):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, flour. 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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