My eggplant parm turned to mush... why?!
My eggplant parm turned to mush... why?
I made eggplant parm last night. The breading was great... nice and crisp, but the eggplant was very very mushing. What happened. Any tips for next time?
Additional Details2 weeks ago
I made eggplant parm last night. The breading was great... nice and crisp, but the eggplant was very very mushing. I salted the eggplant before baking to get the water out of it. I also don't think it happened when I fried the eggplant in the pan. What happened? Could it have been a bad eggplant? Any tips for next time?
Answers:
2 weeks ago
I made eggplant parm last night. The breading was great... nice and crisp, but the eggplant was very very mushing. I salted the eggplant before baking to get the water out of it. I also don't think it happened when I fried the eggplant in the pan. What happened? Could it have been a bad eggplant? Any tips for next time?
Eggplant is like a sponge. It has a very high water content. You need to sprinkle your Eggplant slices with some salt to extract the water. Let it sit a bit to get all the water out and then bread it. That may help.
maybe you put to much sauce or over cooked it in the oven try less sauce and less cooking time in the oven next time
I do believe that is caused by overcooking.
Prep the eggplant by slicing and sprinkling salt over it. The salt will draw out the excess liquid/water from the egg plant slices. Drain on paper towels after about an hours. Pat dry each slice and then follow your recipe for breading etc...
You cooked it too long. I used to work @ a Italian restr. & this was my fav. dish.
Next time turn the heat up alittle more to get the ouside light brown. :)
There is too much moisture in your eggplant, that's why it turns mushy, try this method next time and see how it goes for you:
To salt eggplant, peel it and then slice, cube, or quarter it, depending on the recipe. Sprinkle the pieces generously with salt and let them sit in a colander for an hour (you'll usually see a lot of liquid beading on the surface). Rinse the eggplant in plenty of water to remove the salt, firmly squeeze a few pieces at a time in the palm of your hand to draw out almost all the moisture, and then pat the eggplant dry with paper towels. Thorough drying is important; squeezing out excess moisture will give you a less greasy result.
Goode luck, hope it's better next time for you!
If you don't cook eggplant fast enough, it is basically a sponge that will soak up any liquid (grease) it touches.
You should generally purge your eggplant before cooking it to get out the natural water and condense pores, that way it cannot soak up the grease:
slice your eggplant, then in the sink or on a cookie sheet place a wire cooling rack with the slices on it. heavily sprinke the top of the slices w/ kosher salt. after 15 min turn them over and do the same to the other side. Give it a rest there for at least an hour. You will notices lots of water collecting underneath. Then take the slices and literally wring them out like a sponge to squeeze out the excess water. Quickley rinse off salt, pat dry, and they are ready to be battered and fried. This is how the restaurants do it, and is recommende whenever placing them in liquids you do not want absorbed. Like I said, they are just big sponges.
I am not sure why you would put salt and then rinse them off completely, isn't that what we are trying to prevent? My suggestion first of all, is that it Italy most Italian's don't bread thier eggplant when they make it. What you should try is to fry it up it olive oil and only and keep replenishing the oil as needed for your next batch that you throw into a pan. Their you can control your additional oil and how much goes in. Then set them on a papertowel and lightly salt them. Don't double up on your layers either at this stage.
After all have cooled down put them in the fridge to get cold and start layering your eggplants with sauce and parmesean cheese. Eggplant parm should be eated at room temp, you get better flavors, and another suggestion is to make a sandwhich out of it, and put it on a nice italian loaf. YUM!