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Broiled Egg Plant

Broiled eggplant slices seasoned with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Eggplant and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,123 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Broiled Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the eggplant into slices ½ inch thick and peel them.

  2. Soak the slices in cold, salted water for 1 hour.

  3. Wipe the slices dry and place them in a mixture of ½ cup salad oil and 2 teaspoons vinegar for 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the eggplant, drain in a colander, and sprinkle each slice with salt and pepper.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the slices on a grill and broil over a clear fire.

  2. Cook for 5 minutes on one side before turning.

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. Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Eggplant + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together220 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and soft when broiled.
Salad oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the slices brown on the grill.
Vinegar
Adds a light acidity that brightens the flavor of the oiled eggplant.

The step that matters

Soak the slices in cold, salted water for 1 hour. Soaking draws out some of the eggplant's bitter compounds and excess moisture, which helps the slices become tender and keeps them from turning soggy or bitter on the grill.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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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