Skip to main content
Main

Aubergines Farcies.

A baked dish of eggplants stuffed with a mixture of bacon, mushrooms, suet, breadcrumbs, cheese, and egg, topped with breadcrumbs and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

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

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

Make the stuffing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the butter and bacon; when hot, add the shallots and fry briefly.

  2. In a bowl, mix the suet, parsley, breadcrumbs (soaked in a little milk), and Parmesan cheese.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, then add the butter and shallots, and the yolk of the egg (or the whole egg if necessary). Mix well and fill the eggplants with the stuffing.

Bake and serve

  1. Arrange the stuffed eggplants in a buttered sauté pan and sprinkle with a mixture of breadcrumbs and grated cheese.

  2. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour.

  3. Serve with demi-glace sauce.

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 shell that holds the stuffing and softens into a tender, moist base when baked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the milk and butter to give the stuffing body and help it hold together.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it sets lightly and holds its shape when baked.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the stuffing moist during baking.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty flavor and fat to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Scooping out the eggplant. Removing too little flesh leaves no room for the stuffing, while removing too much can thin the shell so it tears or collapses during baking.

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.

More stuffed eggplant recipes

Turkish 3 See all 156 →

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipes