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Stuffed Eggplant

A baked dish of eggplant halves filled with a mushroom, onion, bread crumb, cheese, and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggplant

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.

Prepare the eggplant

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

  2. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and parboil in salted water until slightly tender.

  3. Scoop out most of the inside and place it in a chopping bowl.

Make the filling

  1. Add the soaked mushrooms, chopped onion, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and cheese to the bowl.

  2. Chop the mixture well and then stir in the beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill each eggplant half with the mixture and place them in a buttered baking dish.

  2. Dot the tops with butter and bake for 30 minutes.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplants
Hold the filling as a edible shell while softening into a tender base.
Eggs
Bind the filling so it sets firm when baked rather than falling apart.
Holland cheese
Melts and adds richness and savory flavor, helping the filling hold together.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body and structure.
Dry mushrooms
Add earthy, savory depth once rehydrated and chopped into the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and encourages gentle browning on the tops.

The step that matters

Parboiling the eggplant halves. Parboiling until only slightly tender softens the flesh enough to hold a filling while keeping the shell intact. Over-boiling makes it collapse and turn watery during baking.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, onion, pepper, bread, cheese, egg, butter. 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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