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Stuffed Egg Plant

A baked eggplant stuffed with forcemeat, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Egg Plant

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

  1. Cut the stem end off the eggplant and peel it.

  2. Scrape out the center and soak the pieces in weak brine for 45 minutes.

  3. Drain the scraped pieces, chop them finely, and mix with forcemeat and some cream.

  4. Place the mixture back into the eggplant shell.

Bake

  1. Put the stuffed eggplant in a deep baking dish with plenty of butter and a little water.

  2. Cover the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C), basting frequently, until done.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Eggplant + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together74 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the edible shell and soft interior that holds the stuffing.
Forcemeat
Provides the rich, savory filling that gives the dish its body.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the chopped eggplant and forcemeat mixture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the eggplant brown and taste rich as it bakes.

The step that matters

Covering and basting while baking. Eggplant is mostly water and can dry out or turn leathery in the oven. Keeping the dish covered with butter and a little water traps steam, and frequent basting keeps the surface moist so the flesh cooks through gently.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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