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Stuffed Egg Plant, American Style

A baked dish of eggplant halves filled with a mixture of sautéed onions, mushrooms, Espagnole sauce, breadcrumbs, parsley, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Egg Plant, American Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise.

  3. Score the inner part close to the skin without detaching it.

  4. Fry the eggplant halves in hot fat, cut side down.

  5. Drain the fried halves on a linen towel.

  6. Scoop out the inner part of the eggplants, leaving only the shells.

  7. Chop the scooped-out eggplant finely.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Sauté the onions until lightly browned.

  3. Add the chopped eggplant and mushrooms.

  4. Reduce the moisture.

  5. Stir in the Espagnole sauce, bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  6. Slowly mix in the egg yolks until well combined.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the eggplant shells with the mixture.

  2. Arrange the filled shells in a buttered pan.

  3. Sprinkle the shells with bread crumbs.

  4. Top each shell with a small piece of butter.

  5. Bake the shells in the oven until golden.

  6. Serve with a brown Italian 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  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

Eggplants
Form the edible shells that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set firm when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the filling and add body and a golden crust.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the tops brown during baking.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth of flavor when lightly browned.

The step that matters

Reduce the moisture. Eggplant and mushrooms release a lot of water. If the filling stays wet, it dilutes the binding yolks and turns the mixture loose, so cook off the liquid before adding the eggs.

Swap the eggplant

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, mushroom, sauce, bread, parsley, 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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