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Aubergines Farcies

A baked dish of eggplant halves filled with a savory mixture of bacon, mushrooms, suet, breadcrumbs, cheese, and herbs, topped with demi-glace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Aubergines Farcies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and scoop out some of the inside to make room for the stuffing.

  2. Finely chop the bacon, mushrooms, and suet.

  3. In a pan, melt the butter and sauté the shallots until soft.

  4. Add the chopped bacon, mushrooms, and suet; cook until browned.

  5. Stir in the breadcrumbs, parsley, and Parmesan cheese.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Mix in the egg, season with salt and pepper.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the eggplant halves with the stuffing and place in a baking dish.

  2. Pour the demi-glace sauce over the stuffed eggplants.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30-40 minutes until the eggplants are tender.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Eggplant + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Eggplant + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplants
Form the hollow shell that holds the stuffing and turns tender when baked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the butter and juices, giving the stuffing body and a light texture.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when spooned into the eggplant.
Bacon
Adds salty, savoury fat and browned flavour to the stuffing.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the topping brown.
Demi-glace sauce
Adds moisture and rich savoury depth as the dish bakes.

The step that matters

Cook the bacon, mushrooms and suet until browned. Browning develops deep savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Cooking off excess moisture from the mushrooms keeps the stuffing from becoming soggy inside the eggplant.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, shallot, parsley, parmesan cheese, egg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, shallot, parsley, parmesan cheese, egg, 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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