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Stuffed Egg Plant, American Style

A baked dish of eggplant halves filled with sautéed eggplant, mushrooms, onions, and spices, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Egg Plant, American Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the shells

  1. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and score the inner part close to the skin without detaching it.

  2. Fry the eggplant halves in hot lard, cut side down, and drain on a linen towel.

  3. Scoop out the inner part of the eggplants, leaving only the shells.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the scooped-out eggplant finely.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the onions until lightly browned.

  3. Add the chopped eggplant and mushrooms, and cook until the moisture reduces.

  4. Stir in the Espagnole sauce, bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  5. Slowly mix in the egg yolks until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the eggplant shells with the mixture and place them in a buttered pan.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and add a small piece of butter to each.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until heated through.

  4. Serve with a brown Italian sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Eggplant + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplants
Form the edible shells that hold the filling and soften as they cook.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and set when heated, giving it a firmer, sliceable body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the filling and add body, with crumbs on top helping the surface brown.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and moisture to the filling as they cook down.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth of flavor when browned in butter.
Espagnole sauce
Adds rich body and savory depth, helping bind the filling together.

The step that matters

Slowly mixing in the egg yolks. Adding yolks gradually while the filling is still warm lets them blend evenly. Adding them too quickly or to a very hot mixture can cause uneven, scrambled bits and an unevenly set filling.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, mushroom, sauce, bread, parsley, 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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