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Stuffed Egg-plaint

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) · 8 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-plaint

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. Cook the eggplant in boiling salted water for 15 minutes.

  2. Cut a slice from the top and remove the pulp carefully.

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

Make the filling

  1. Melt butter, add onion to the melted butter and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Combine the onion mixture with the pulp and bread, season with salt and pepper, and moisten if necessary.

  3. Cook the combined mixture for 5 minutes.

  4. Cool slightly and mix in the beaten egg.

Stuff and bake

  1. Refill the eggplant with the mixture.

  2. Cover the stuffed eggplant with buttered bread crumbs.

  3. 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 that holds the filling while it cooks.
Soft stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the pulp into a spoonable filling.
Beaten egg
Sets during baking to hold the stuffing together.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor from the onion into the filling.

The step that matters

Cool slightly before mixing in the beaten egg. If the filling is too hot, the egg can begin to scramble and will not bind the mixture evenly. Cooling first lets the egg set smoothly during baking.

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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