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Fried Egg Plant

Slices of eggplant are soaked, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Fried Egg Plant

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Soak the eggplant slices in salt water for 1 hour.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat the egg and mix in the cream, celery salt, and pepper.

  2. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg mixture.

  3. Roll the coated slices in bread crumbs.

  4. Fry in butter over low heat until golden brown.

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.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Eggplant + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 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 tender interior that is the main body of the dish.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the slices so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds browning and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Fry in butter over low heat until golden brown. Butter browns at a lower temperature than oil and can burn quickly, so low heat lets the coating brown evenly while the eggplant cooks through.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, celery, pepper, bread, 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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