So, in reading up on eggplant in an attempt to get ahold of its capricious nature, I turned to Alton Brown because I felt like I needed some science behind me. His foodnetwork.com recipes introduced me on salting the eggplant to purge the bitter juices. Huh. I had no idea there were bitter juices that could be removed. So, I thought I’d put that technique to the test in my own little version of America’s Test Kitchen.
I chose two small eggplants of the same variety. I peeled the eggplant, sliced them into 1/4″ thick rounds and cooked them exactly the same way — roasting at 375 degrees for 20 minutes in just olive oil. The only difference is that I salted one batch following Alton’s directions from his Eggplant Pasta recipe:
“Evenly coat each slice with the [kosher] salt and purge on a sheet pan fitted with a rack for 30 minutes. Rinse with cold water and roll in paper towels to dry.”
Believe it or not, some juice does drip out. Not much, but it did happen. This technique is, however, a bit of a pain with the rack and all and the extra time involved, so the question is, is salting worth it?
You bet.
There was a very noticeable difference between the salt-purged and non-salt-purged eggplant, and not just that the salted version retained some salt for flavor enhancement. The salt-purged version was not nearly as bitter, sweeter, and more mellow. Much, much better than without salting. So, in my opinion, salt-purging eggplant is definitely worth it.
csagourmet 