Why it works: Eggplant and egg work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 515 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Fried Egg Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the eggplant into pieces at least ½ inch thick.
Pare each piece carefully and soak in a mixture of salt and water, weighted down with a plate, for at least 1 hour.
Coat and fry
Wipe each slice dry, dip in the beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.
Fry in hot lard until golden brown and cooked through.
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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Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 tender, moist interior that the crisp coating surrounds.
- Beaten egg
- Acts as a binder so the cracker crumbs stick to the slices.
- Cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating when fried.
- Lard
- Conducts heat to brown the coating and adds rich flavor.
The step that matters
Wipe each slice dry before coating. Surface moisture keeps the egg and crumbs from adhering evenly and steams the coating instead of letting it crisp in the hot fat.
“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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