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Aubergines, Stuffed
Cut the aubergines into halves lengthways, and scoop out carefully all the seeds and pulp; put these into a basin, and mix them with one ounce of bread-crumbs, one ounce of minced ham, one tea-spoonful of mixed herbs, and pepper and salt to taste; blend with one egg, fill the aubergines with this mixture, put little pieces of butter here and there, and bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 1s. for eight portions.
A workable stuffed aubergine, but the quantities are written for the small, thin-skinned fruit of a Victorian kitchen garden and the filling is thinner than a modern cook expects.
- Scale the filling to your auberginesOne ounce of breadcrumbs (about half a cup, fresh) and one ounce of minced ham will barely dress a single large supermarket aubergine, let alone the eight halves implied by eight portions. Reckon on that quantity per aubergine and multiply.
- Moderate oven350F/180C. Three-quarters of an hour at that heat will cook a small aubergine shell through; a large modern one is better given 20 minutes cut-side down before it is filled, or the skin stays leathery while the stuffing browns.
- Cook the pulp firstThe recipe mixes raw scooped flesh straight into the crumbs. Aubergine holds a great deal of water, and raw pulp bound with egg tends to steam into a grey paste. Sweat the chopped flesh in butter or oil until collapsed, then bind.
- SaltingModern cultivars are bred for low bitterness and need no salting for flavour, but 20 minutes under salt still draws out water and keeps the flesh from drinking oil.
- Mixed herbsUsually dried parsley, thyme and marjoram, sometimes with savory; such blends were made up at home as well as bought ready-mixed. A teaspoon of dried mixed herbs, or a tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley and thyme, is the equivalent.
- The ham"Minced" here means chopped small, by hand or through a mincer. Cooked ham off the bone or a piece of gammon; anything cured and salty works, and the salt in it may be why the seasoning is left to taste.
- Yield and servingFour medium aubergines, halved, would give the eight portions costed at a shilling, though the recipe does not say how many to use. A dish of this sort would more likely have appeared as a vegetable course or savoury than as a main dish.
Cassell's places aubergines among the vegetables an English cook might meet rather than one she would expect: the fruit was grown under glass in kitchen gardens and appeared in town markets in late summer, still often called the egg-plant after the small white varieties. Stuffing and baking halved aubergines is a Mediterranean method of long standing, and it is often said to have reached English cookery books through French practice, where the dish appears as aubergines farcies; the ham, breadcrumbs and mixed dried herbs are the English translation of it, the same forcemeat that would fill a marrow or a tomato. The costing in shillings and the count of portions were a standard feature of the book, aimed at a housekeeper working to a set weekly figure, and a shilling for eight puts this among the cheaper made dishes in it."