The purple egg plants are better than the white ones. Put them whole
into a pot with plenty of water, and simmer them till quite tender.
Then take them out, drain them, and (having peeled off the skins) cut
them up, and mash them smooth in a deep dish. Mix with them some grated
bread, some powdered sweet marjoram, and a large piece of butter,
adding a pounded nutmeg. Grate a layer of bread over the top, and put
the dish into the oven and brown it. You must send it to table in the
same dish.
Egg plant is sometimes eaten at dinner, but generally at breakfast.
TO FRY EGG PLANT.--Do not pare your egg plants if they are to be fried,
but slice them about half an inch thick and lay them an hour or two
in salt and water to remove their strong taste, which to most persons
is very unpleasant. Then take them out, wipe them, and season them
with pepper only. Beat some yolk of egg; and in another dish grate a
sufficiency of bread-crumbs. Have ready in a frying-pan some lard and
butter mixed, and make it boil. Then dip each slice of egg plant first
in the egg, and then in the crumbs, till both sides are well covered;
and fry them brown, taking care to have them done all through, as the
least rawness renders them very unpalatable.
STUFFED EGG PLANTS.--Parboil them to take off their bitterness. Then
slit each one down the side, and extract the seeds. Have ready a
stuffing made of grated bread-crumbs, butter, minced sweet herbs, salt,
pepper, nutmeg, and beaten yolk of egg. Fill with it the cavity from
whence you took the seeds, and bake the egg plants in a Dutch oven.
Serve them up with a made gravy poured into the dish.