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Baked Egg Plant

A baked eggplant stuffed with a mixture of eggplant, onion, meat, breadcrumbs, spices, and a raw egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Baked 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 ↓

Baked Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut off the stalk end of the eggplant about 1.5 inches.

  2. Scrape out the inside with a spoon.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the scraped eggplant, boiled onion, chopped meat, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and spice.

  2. Add the raw egg and mix well.

  3. Fill the eggplant with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 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.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 and adds soft, moist body when baked.
Chopped meat
Provides the main protein and savory richness of the filling.
Raw egg
Binds the filling so it holds together when baked and sliced.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs moisture and helps give the filling a firmer, less loose texture.
Boiled onion
Adds moisture and mild sweetness to the filling.

The step that matters

Add the raw egg and mix well. The egg is the binder. If it is not evenly mixed through the meat and crumbs, the filling can stay loose or set unevenly in the oven.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, meat, bread, 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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