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Broiled Egg Plant

Broiled eggplant slices marinated in oil and vinegar, then grilled until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Broiled Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the eggplant into ½-inch thick slices and peel them.

  2. Soak the slices in cold, salted water for 1 hour.

  3. Dry the slices and marinate in salad oil and vinegar for 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the eggplant and drain in a colander.

  5. Sprinkle each slice with salt and pepper.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil on a grill over a clear fire for 5 minutes on one side before turning.

  2. Serve very hot.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Eggplant + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together220 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 and tender when broiled.
Salad oil
Adds fat and moisture, helping the surface brown and carrying flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the oiled eggplant.

The step that matters

Broil on a grill over a clear fire. Eggplant is mostly water and spongy flesh. A clear, hot fire browns the surface quickly, while too little heat leaves it soggy and too much can scorch it before the inside softens.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper. 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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