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Fried Egg Plant

Slices of eggplant are salted, drained, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Fried Egg Plant

Why it works: Eggplant and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,123 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fried Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Cut the eggplant into slices about ¾ inch thick.

  2. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over each slice and stack them.

  3. Place a plate with a weight on top to press out the juice and let stand for about 1 hour.

  4. Wipe off each slice carefully.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each slice in the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs seasoned with pepper and salt.

  2. Fry in hot fat until golden 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. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the main body of the dish; salting draws out its moisture so slices stay firmer when fried.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder that helps the bread crumbs adhere to each slice.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried in hot fat.

The step that matters

Wipe off each slice carefully. Salt draws moisture to the surface, and wiping away the beads of juice keeps the coating from getting soggy. Excess surface moisture also stops the crumbs from sticking evenly and makes the hot fat spatter.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, 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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