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Scalloped Eggplant

A baked dish of boiled eggplant mixed with breadcrumbs, salt, cream, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Scalloped Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Pare the egg plant.

  2. If large, divide into quarters; if small, divide into halves.

  3. Cook in boiling water until easily pierced with a straw, then drain in a colander.

  4. Transfer to a hot dish and beat with a fork until finely broken.

Mix and bake

  1. Measure the egg plant and mix with grated bread crumbs, salt, cream, and beaten egg.

  2. Place in an earthen pudding dish and bake until the egg is set and heated throughout, but not dry.

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

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

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

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

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture and sets when baked, giving the dish its firm, custard-like body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the eggplant hold together as a scallop.
Thick sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture tender rather than dry.
Eggplant (in the method)
Forms the bulk of the dish, its soft flesh mashed to a uniform texture.

The step that matters

Bake until just set, not dry. Egg proteins set as they heat and will toughen and dry out if overbaked, so the dish should be removed once the egg is set throughout.

“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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