Love and Olive Oil

The Eggplant Experiment.

I always knew there were different varieties of eggplant. Even your ho-hum grocery store usually carries at least two. But on a recent trip to the farmers’ market, I was completely flabbergasted at just HOW MANY varieties there were. In the process of oogling the various shapes and colors of eggplant, we began thinking how wonderful it would be to see what the differences in flavor and texture these varieties produced. So we grabbed some bags and started collecting. All in all, we acquired 7 different kinds of eggplant. We nixed the run-of-the-mill purple globe eggplants in favor of the more unique ones.

Seven Varieties of Eggplant

If anyone out there is an expert on eggplant varieties feel free to butt in, but here’s what I’ve gathered from my intensive research (all I want is a picture and a name! How hard is that to find?). The best I could do was to determine that the long skinny fellas are Asian (whether they are Chinese or Japanese is up for debate), the one that looks like a giant purple tomato is Sicilian. The various light purple stripey ones are probably Italian, but I really couldn’t say. And the little dark purple ones? No clue.

For our experiment we picked out a tasty-sounding recipe, a pan seared eggplant with a ginger honey glaze. The plan was to cook all the eggplant in the same way, then perform a taste test to determine the best tasting aubergine.

Different Varieties of Eggplant

To keep everything straight (and since I didn’t know what each of the varieties were called) I drew pictures of each eggplant on post its. We tried to keep the post its with each variety from the sink, to the cutting board, to the pan, to the plate.

Chopped Eggplant Keeping the Varieties Straight Eggplant Cooking

We cooked two full pans worth of eggplant, the smaller pieces in one pan and the larger ones (that would take longer to cook) in another. And again, the post its stayed stuck above the stove in the same order as the eggplant went into the pan.

Pan Seared Eggplant with Honey Ginger Glaze

The final product, lightly browned, melt in your mouth, and drizzled with a sweet and tangy glaze.

The verdict? Inconclusive. Turns out all eggplant tastes pretty much the same. At least to us it did. We both thought the Sicilian (tomato-esque) eggplant, shown above, had the best texture – it was much firmer than the others and didn’t turn to mush when cooked. But we could definitely taste a bit of bitterness in it, as well as a few of the other varieties. Overall, my favorite were the purple Asian eggplants, Taylor liked the light lavender ones. But that’s only if you forced us to choose one. No one kind was significantly better or worse than the others. Should you take my word that these two varieties are superior to the others? Probably not.

And the recipe, in case you’re interested, is posted here. Taylor enjoyed it, but I felt the glaze was too strong. Too much ginger or pomegranate, maybe? It was almost too much for me to take.

So what’s next? A summer squash experiment, maybe? Heirloom tomatoes? Though maybe we should work on developing the intricacies of our palette before performing any more taste tests, heh. Actually being able to distinguish one from another would be a nice skill to have.

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16 Comments

  1. So glad to have come across this post! I was trying to decide which variety to plant – glad to know it probably doesn’t matter! :)

  2. What a fun experiment! Even if you didn’t find any groundbreaking results, it sounded like a fun process. I’m not a huge eggplant fan– the soft texture and tough skin just doesn’t do it for me. But I might try the Scialian one, since you said it was firmer.

  3. The eggplant looks great. I roasted some a few weeks ago, just a regular purple globe, with just EVOO + s&p. It was quite yummy.

    But it seriously did a number on my stomach! Then I realized that eggplant is extremely…ahem….fiberous.

    I wonder if all of the variations have as much fiber and the purple globe….

  4. what a neat experiment & post! I am not an eggplant lover, but I could see us trying something similar with all the beautiful squash we have been getting at the farmer’s market— what a delight! We will have to compare notes!

  5. It would be a taste experiment to have each type of eggplant made into baba ghanoush.

    I would volunteer to sample such a display.

  6. Heather –

    The pan is a calphalon one pan… this one I believe: http://www.amazon.com/Calphalon-Nonstick-13-Inch-Skillet-Glass/dp/B0007IN64M

    It’s wonderful! :)

  7. Your dad will be so sad when he hears that he missed your eggplant experiment! NOT!

  8. Such a fun experiment! Your blog is beautiful, and I look forward to trying several of your recipes! Thanks!

  9. What a great experiment. I have yet to succumb to buying eggplant as I never really know what to do with the different varieties I see at the farmers market.I guess it really doesn’t matter? That top photo is great, makes me want to go buy eggplant NOW.

  10. I’ve always wanted to this experiment, too! Nice work and great photos.

  11. the way you cut your eggplant is so gorgeous! sounds like a fantastic recipe. i think there’s also indian eggplant. who knows.

  12. I’m surprised by the results and am impressed that you performed this appetizing experiment. Now we’re all in the know about eggplants, thanks to you!

  13. Sounds like a wonderful experiment. I’m really not an eggplant person myself but yours look very appetizing.

  14. Fun! That is a great pan – what type is it?? I need one with a glass lid…

    Cheers,

    *Heather*

  15. It looks like a mighty tasty science experiment! I really like eggplant. I’m sad I haven’t gotten any in my share so far this summer. :( I try to mainly cook veggies from it.

  16. Great experiment! I LOVE the little drawings that you did for matching!!!

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