Name: Scalloped Eggplant
Ingredients: eggplant; bread crumbs; butter; pepper; salt

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 ↓

Scalloped Eggplant

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Mash the eggplant.
Butter a baking dish.
Layer bread crumbs and mashed eggplant in the dish.
Season each layer with bits of butter, pepper, and salt.
Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with bread crumbs on top.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until well browned.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Eggplant + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,123 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Eggplant + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together265 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).