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Eggplant

Eggplant slices are seasoned, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, and fried until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Eggplant

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the eggplant into pieces less than ½ inch thick, leaving the skin on.

  2. Sprinkle pepper and coarse sea salt between the slices and cover with a plate.

  3. Let sit for 1 hour.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each slice into beaten egg, then coat with bread or cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot lard or butter until light brown.

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.

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.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Eggplant + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together265 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Its flesh becomes tender and mild when cooked, forming the body of the dish.
Egg
Binds the crumb coating to the eggplant so it adheres during frying.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that browns in the hot fat.
Lard or butter
Conducts heat to crisp the coating and adds richness and browning.

The step that matters

Let the slices sit with salt. Salt draws moisture out of the eggplant through osmosis, which softens the flesh and helps the slices absorb less oil and crisp better when fried.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, bread, butter. 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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