(Solanum melongena, Linn., variety esculentum)

Eggplant belongs to the Solamaceae, the same family to which the potato, tomato, tobacco and peppers belong. The "eggs" contain very little nourishment, but when well dressed form an agreeable waste or bulk food.

Boiled Eggplant

Throw the eggplant into a kettle of unsalted boiling water; boil rapidly for thirty minutes; take out and peel; cut into halves; put each half in a piece of cheesecloth; drop into a kettle of fresh boiling salted water; cook for thirty minutes until tender. Lift carefully, turn on to a heated dish, pour over sauce Hollandaise, and send at once to the table.

Baked Eggplant

1 eggplant

1/2 cup bread-crumbs

1 hard-boiled egg

1 tablespoonful butter

1 teaspoonful salt

A dash of pepper

Boil the eggplant in unsalted water for twenty minutes; take out, cut into halves and scoop out the centre, leaving a wall a half inch thick. Chop the portion that you have scooped out, mix it with the bread-crumbs, salt, pepper, butter, melted, and the egg, chopped fine. Dust the eggplant itself with salt and pepper and put in the stuffing. Brush the top with melted butter and bake in a quick oven thirty minutes. Serve on a folded napkin.

Fried Eggplant

Peel a good-sized eggplant; cut it into slices of a quarter inch. Dust with salt and pepper; dip in beaten egg; roll in bread-crumbs and sauté in very hot fat. When they are brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Dry on brown paper. Eggplant may be fried in deep fat, providing the slices are cut thin, then into halves, and well covered with egg and bread-crumbs.