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Stuffed Eggplant

A baked eggplant stuffed with a savory mixture of bread crumbs, onion, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stuffed Eggplant

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Cook the eggplant in boiling salted water for 15 minutes.

  2. Cut a slice from the top and remove the pulp carefully with a spoon.

  3. Chop the pulp and mix it with the bread crumbs.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the chopped onion, and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Alternatively, cook 3 slices of bacon and use the bacon fat instead of butter.

  3. Combine the onion (or bacon) with the chopped pulp and bread, season with salt and pepper, and moisten with stock or water if needed.

  4. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes, then cool slightly and stir in the beaten egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Refill the eggplant with the mixture, cover with buttered bread crumbs, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (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 edible shell that holds the filling while it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Soak up moisture and give the filling body so it holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the filling together and sets it as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the onion soften and brown lightly.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before adding the egg. If the filling is too hot, the beaten egg can scramble instead of blending smoothly, leaving a grainy texture once baked.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, onion, pepper, egg. 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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