Do You Really Need to Salt Eggplant? (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you don't salt eggplant before cooking? ›

Older recipes call for salting eggplant to draw out the bitter juices, but today's eggplants are less bitter (unless very large), so salting is largely unnecessary. It will, however, help the spongy flesh absorb less oil and crisp up like a dream.

Salting: Salting removes excess liquid and some of the bitterness. Today's eggplants are bred for mildness, though, so it's not as important as it used to be (if you are frying eggplant, salting will ensure a creamy texture and rich flavor). This method works for eggplant slices, cubes, or planks.

According to the Kitchn, you can just as easily microwave eggplant to pre-cook it and remove excess water without the added sodium and extra waiting time for it to "sweat" it out.

I reached out to an expert for the answer. Sara Jenkins, chef and owner of Porsena in New York City has cooked many an eggplant in her career and firmly believes salting is unnecessary. "I have rarely found an eggplant that is so bitter that it needs salting.

If you don't want to lose time by salting or soaking, you can always just cut away the seeds. The seeds tend to hold in most of the bitterness, and older eggplants can have a whole lot of seeds. Cut away the inner core of seeds and it should mitigate the bitterness.

However, eggplants also contain a substance, solanine, which is used to defend themselves against fungi and insects. It is precisely on this substance that the bitter taste of the eggplants depends. To eliminate it, the most common methods are soaking in water and vinegar and the salt technique.

While the skin of a small young eggplant is edible, the skin becomes bitter on larger or older eggplants and should be peeled. When in doubt, the answer to, "Do you peel eggplant before cooking?" is yes, peel it. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the skin.

Yes, you can microwave your eggplant instead of salting it. Salting eggplant before cooking is a popular trick that works well for traditional cooking methods to draw out the moisture in the eggplant, but the microwave solves that very problem.

Many recipes call for eggplants to be salted and rinsed to draw out any bitter juices, but this shouldn't be necessary if they're fresh. If the seeds are too defined or feel hard, the eggplant may be old and should be salted.

Before cooking, you should pat the eggplant dry between paper towels. It can help to press down slightly on it to release a bit of the water. Use the eggplant immediately. This method works especially well before frying eggplant since it will crisp up more evenly.

What happens when eggplant is not salted before cooking? ›

The unsalted fried eggplant was firmer and slightly fibrous. Despite some claims to the contrary, there was no difference in the amount of oil absorbed between salted and not-salted. Eggplant absorbs a LOT of oil either way. That difference in texture became more pronounced the longer the eggplant had been salted.

Eggplant, a member of the nightshade family, has a tendency toward bitter. Salting removes much of this bitter flavor. According to The Science of Cooking at exploratorium.edu, the bitterness may be caused by phenolic compounds found in the seeds of the eggplant. Larger, more mature eggplant tend to have more seeds.

Typically eggplant behaves like a sponge, soaking up heroic amounts of oil when fried. The Terzo Piano chefs use this trick to prevent heavy aubergines: Before frying, soak the strips of eggplant in an ice water bath. They will absorb water and drop in temperature.