Name: Baked Egg Plant
Ingredients: 1 quart eggplant, peeled and cut into pieces; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon salt; ½ teaspoon black pepper; powdered cracker for dredging; butter pieces for topping

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 ↓

Baked Egg Plant

Ingredients

1 quart eggplant, peeled and cut into pieces
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
powdered cracker for dredging
butter pieces for topping

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Steam the eggplant until it can be mashed smooth.
Stir in the butter, salt, and black pepper.

Assemble

Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and smooth it out.
Dredge the top with powdered cracker.
Strew with pieces of butter.

Bake

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

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.

Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,123 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Eggplant + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together507 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant: Forms the soft, mashable base that gives the dish its body and moisture.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping the top brown.
Powdered cracker: Forms a dry crumb crust on top that browns and adds a crisp texture.

The step that matters

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned. Baking until the top is browned matters because the cracker crumb and butter need dry, high heat to crisp and color. Pulling it too early leaves a pale, soft top, while overbaking can dry out the mashed interior.