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 ↓
Fried Egg Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare and cut the eggplant into slices half an inch thick, then cut these into quarters.
Dust the pieces quickly with salt and pepper.
Bread and fry
Dip them into the beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.
Fry in hot fat until golden brown.
Dry on brown paper and serve immediately.
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.
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
- Eggplant (in the method)
- Forms the tender interior that the crisp coating surrounds.
- Beaten egg
- Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs stick to the eggplant.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
The step that matters
Frying in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs more oil and turns greasy instead of crisp. Eggplant also soaks up fat readily, so the pieces should be fried at a steady high heat and not overcrowded.
“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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