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Stuffed Egg Plant

A baked eggplant stuffed with a mixture of chopped pulp, bread crumbs, buttered onion, and beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Egg Plant

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Boil the eggplant in salted water for 15 minutes.

  2. Cut a slice from the top and remove the pulp with a spoon, being careful not to damage the skin.

  3. Chop the pulp and mix it with the bread crumbs.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the onion, and cook for 5 minutes, or use bacon fat instead.

  2. Combine the onion mixture with the chopped pulp and bread, season with salt and pepper, and moisten with stock or water if needed.

  3. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes, then cool slightly and stir in the beaten egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Refill the eggplant with the mixture, cover with buttered bread crumbs, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 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. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Eggplant + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body so it holds its shape.
Butter or bacon fat
Adds richness and carries flavor into the onion and filling.
Beaten egg
Binds the filling so it sets lightly when baked.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture for 5 minutes, then cool slightly before adding the egg. Cooling the filling slightly keeps the hot mixture from scrambling the beaten egg, so the egg blends in smoothly and binds the filling as it bakes.

Swap the eggplant

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

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

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