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Stuffed Egg Plant

A baked dish of eggplant filled with a butter, onion, parsley, egg, and breadcrumb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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

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 for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  3. Cut off a piece from the top and scrape out most of the flesh, keeping the skin intact.

Make the filling

  1. In a pan, cook the butter, onion, and parsley together for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the eggplant pulp and cook for another 10 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg.

  4. Add ½ cup of bread crumbs and mix well.

Stuff and bake

  1. Refill the eggplant shell with the mixture and sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs on top.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 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. Pepper + parsleytop 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 interior that holds the filling together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, giving the filling a soft, cohesive texture.
Beaten egg
Binds the filling so it holds its shape when sliced and served.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the filling and helping it brown on top.

The step that matters

Scraping out the eggplant flesh. Keeping the skin intact preserves a sturdy shell to hold the filling. Scraping too close to the skin can tear it, letting filling leak during baking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, bread, butter, pepper, parsley, 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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