Name: Stuffed Egg Plant, Brazilian Style
Ingredients: 1 eggplant; 4 tablespoons finely chopped capers; 2 teaspoons anchovy paste; Espagnole sauce (for serving)

Why it works: Eggplant and capers share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 45 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stuffed Egg Plant, Brazilian Style

Ingredients

1 eggplant
4 tablespoons finely chopped capers
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
Espagnole sauce (for serving)

Directions

Prepare the eggplant as described in the previous recipe.
Mix the chopped capers and anchovy paste into the stuffing.
Stuff the eggplant with the mixture.
Serve with a reduced Espagnole 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.

Eggplant + caperstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together45 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Capers + anchovytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together473 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Capers + saucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together678 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Eggplant + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together174 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).