ESCALLOPED EGG PLANT.
1 egg plant, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, one teaspoonful salt, 1/3 teaspoonful pepper, 1 egg, 4 tablespoonfuls grated cheese, 1 tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce, 3 tablespoonfuls bread crumbs.
One good sized perfect egg plant. Let stand in cold water one hour. Do not remove skin, but put the egg plant whole in a deep kettle of boiling water, cover, and cook thirty minutes, or until tender. Be careful not to break the skin while cooking. Drain on large platter and cool. Cut in half and turn cut surfaces to platter while removing skin with knife and fork. Egg plant discolors readily, also stains easily; so, keep covered from the air when not preparing it. Use silver knife and fork for chopping; porcelain frying pan for seasoning process and an earthen dish for baking if you desire best results. Chop the plant moderately fine, season with salt and pepper and simmer in two tablespoonfuls of butter over a slow fire for ten minutes, keeping it closely covered. Add one tablespoonful of Worcestershire Sauce after taking from the fire, and divide the mixture into two equal portions. Put the first half into a hot buttered baking dish; sprinkle over it one half of the grated cheese and one tablespoonful of bread crumbs. Stir one well beaten egg into the second portion; add to the first, cover with remainder of cheese and finish with two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs. Bake in moderately hot oven for twenty minutes. Cover the dish for first five minutes, or until the bread crumbs shall have lightly browned. Serve hot as an entree, with or without tomato sauce, according to taste.
Alice Carey Waterman.
FRIED EGG PLANT.
Select a plant not too large or old. Cut in slices one fourth of an inch thick, and lay in weak salt water over night. In the morning remove the purple rind and wipe dry, dip in beaten egg, then in fine bread crumbs or cracker dust; fry on the griddle or in a spider in hot butter and drippings until a nice brown. It must cook rather slowly until thoroughly soft, otherwise it is unpalatable.
Mrs. Mallory.
They can be more daintily fried if they are steamed first, in which case the slices should be cut one inch thick and should lie in salt and water two hours before frying. Crumbs sifted through a coarse sieve are an improvement.
STUFFED EGG PLANT
Choose four rather small egg plants and cut in halves; with a spoon scoop out a part of the flesh from each half, leaving a thin layer adhering to the skin. Salt the shells and drain; chop the flesh. Mince two or three onions, brown with a little butter, mix with the flesh of the egg plant, and cook away the moisture; add some chopped mushrooms, parsley and lastly an equal quantity of bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, remove from the fire and thicken with yolks of eggs. Now fill the shells, dust with bread crumbs, put in a baking-pan and sprinkle with olive oil, or bits of butter and bake.