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Stuffed Egg Plant, Turkesh Style

A Turkish-style stuffed eggplant filled with rice, mutton, onions, and tomato sauce, baked and served with reduced tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Stuffed Egg Plant, Turkesh Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare the eggplant as in the previous recipe.

  2. Cook the rice in white broth until well cooked and dry.

  3. In a saucepan, heat olive oil and lightly fry the onions.

  4. Add garlic to the onions.

  5. Add chopped eggplant and roast mutton to the saucepan; let it simmer slowly.

  6. Stir in the rice, salt, red pepper, tomato sauce, and parsley.

  7. Mix well and let the mixture cool.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the eggplant with the mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Arrange the stuffed eggplant in a buttered pan.

  3. Drizzle with olive oil.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C).

  5. Serve with reduced tomato 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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Eggplant + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together801 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Eggplant + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together943 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and adds body, so the filling stays moist but firm enough to stuff.
Onions
Softened in olive oil, they add sweetness and savory depth to the filling.
Roast mutton
Adds rich, savory meat flavor and chew to the filling.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and moisture, contributing to the filling's flavor and color.
Olive oil
Carries flavor and helps the exterior brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice until well cooked and dry. Rice that is undercooked stays hard, while rice left wet makes the filling soggy and loose, so it may not hold its shape inside the eggplant.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (eggplant, rice, onion, olive, garlic, mutton, pepper):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, rice, onion, olive, garlic, mutton, 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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