Why it works: Eggplant and egg work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 515 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Egg Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the eggplant into slices about ¼ inch thick.
Soak the slices in saltwater for 1 hour.
Drain and dry the slices.
Coat and fry
Dip each slice in beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.
Fry in hot oil until brown.
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.
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Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together515 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggplant
- Forms the tender, moist interior that the crispy coating surrounds.
- Egg
- Binds the cracker crumbs to the slices so the coating adheres during frying.
- Cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
The step that matters
Drain and dry the slices. Eggplant holds a lot of water, and any moisture left on the slices will steam under the coating and make it soggy or cause it to slide off. Thorough drying helps the crumbs stick and fry up crisp in hot oil.
“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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