Name: Stuffed Eggplant or Aubergine
Ingredients: 1 good-sized eggplant; ¼ cup browned bread crumbs; ½ cup chopped or ground almonds; 1 tablespoon olive oil; salt to taste; milk (if needed); additional bread crumbs for topping

Why it works: Eggplant and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 943 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Stuffed Eggplant or Aubergine

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eggplant

Wash the eggplant and place it in a saucepan. Cover with boiling water and add a little salt. Boil for 20 minutes.
Cut the eggplant lengthwise into halves and carefully scoop out the inside, leaving a wall about ¾ inch thick.

Fill and bake

Mix the scooped pulp with the browned bread crumbs, chopped almonds, olive oil, and salt. If the mixture is too dry, add a little milk.
Fill the eggplant shells with the mixture, heaping it up, and sprinkle with additional bread crumbs.
Place in a baking dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) until the top is nicely browned. Serve hot.

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.

Eggplant + olivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together943 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Almond + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Eggplant + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together28 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 pulp that makes up the body of the dish.
Browned bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the filling body so it holds its shape when heaped.
Almonds: Add richness and a nutty texture that contrasts with the soft eggplant.
Olive oil: Adds fat for mouthfeel and helps the top brown in the oven.