[Sca-cooks] What to do with soused eggplant

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Sep 9, 2009, at 12:49 AM, David Friedman wrote:

> A while back I made the soused eggplant from al-Warraq--basically  
> it's eggplant boiled in vinegar then stored in more vinegar.  
> Supposed to keep for a year--and, not surprisingly, it's rather sour.
>
> The question is what to do with it. I've tried rinsing before  
> eating, but it's still very sour. Spread on a slice of bread,  
> perhaps, to dilute the effect? Other suggestions? What does one do  
> with pickled eggplant?

I'm not sure what one does specifically with pickled eggplant, but  
since we're probably dealing with cultures for whom a meal is  
frequently a grain product such as bread or something pilaf-ey, a  
smallish amount of roast, stewed, or ground-and-cooked meat, and,  
often, pickled vegetables as a condiment (this is to be found nearly  
anywhere between, say, China, India or Tibet and Hungary, at least  
today), I'd think it's essentially a condiment to be eaten with other  
foods, like the pickles of India. Some of those Indian pickles are  
pretty darned powerful, too.

Another question that comes to mind is, how sure are you that the  
vinegar in the original is as strong as what you've got? Yeah, I know  
most vinegar is diluted to achieve, what is it, 5%, but is there a  
possibility we're dealing with something less robust? I'm intrigued by  
the changing of the vinegar in mid-process, but then eggplants do give  
off a lot of juice as they cook, unless salted, pressed, or  
otherwise... um... de-juiced before cooking.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter