Salting Egg Plant

"Andie Z" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:4gXQf.651$Rb.244@trndny05...

Quoted message said:

Is it necessary to salt egg plant and wrap in towels like my Italian wife
does?

my Italian mother says that it should only be necessary in order to get the
bitterness out of those larger eggplants...the smaller (and usually) younger
ones tend to be OK and don't need salting

the wrapping in towels part...is that to dry them off after washing the salt
off? or something else?

"Andie Z" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:4gXQf.651$Rb.244@trndny05...

Quoted message said:

Is it necessary to salt egg plant and wrap in towels like my Italian wife
does?

For some recipes, yes. For others, no. Got any specifics?

On Sun 12 Mar 2006 08:55:40a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it MG?

Quoted message said:

"Andie Z" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:4gXQf.651$Rb.244@trndny05...

Quoted message said:

Is it necessary to salt egg plant and wrap in towels like my Italian
wife does?

my Italian mother says that it should only be necessary in order to get
the bitterness out of those larger eggplants...the smaller (and usually)
younger ones tend to be OK and don't need salting

I thought part of the reason was specifically to extract some of the
moisture.

Quoted message said:

the wrapping in towels part...is that to dry them off after washing the
salt off? or something else?

AFAIK, to dry them off.

--
Wayne Boatwright o¿o
____________________

BIOYA

Quoted message said:

Is it necessary to salt egg plant and wrap in towels like my Italian wife
does?

Try your recipe without doing it and find out. My great-grandmother
used to salt peeled eggplant slices and place them in a pasta strainer
with a plate on top in the sink to drain out the bitterness, then she'd
dip them in egg then seasoned breadcrumbs and fry them in olive oil.
That was some good stuff.

Quoted message said:

Is it necessary to salt egg plant and wrap in towels like my Italian wife
does?

It depends on the recipe the eggplant will be used in. Eggplant holds a lot
of moisture that would be detrimental to some recipes; for example, unless
the moisture is removed by salting, my eggplant parmesan becomes very runny
because the moisture cooks out. In a marinated, roasted vegetable recipe I
make, I salt and drain the eggplant before marinating; it absorbs and holds
onto more flavor - if I don't drain it, the moisture being pushed out during
roasting also pushes out the marinade flavor.

Other recipes can tolerate the additional moisture just fine. As is the
case with many things, the answer it ----- it all depends....

--
To email, replace Cujo with Juno

L said:

Quoted message said:

Is it necessary to salt egg plant and wrap in towels like my Italian wife
does?

It depends on the recipe the eggplant will be used in. Eggplant holds a lot
of moisture that would be detrimental to some recipes; for example, unless
the moisture is removed by salting, my eggplant parmesan becomes very runny
because the moisture cooks out. In a marinated, roasted vegetable recipe I
make, I salt and drain the eggplant before marinating; it absorbs and holds
onto more flavor - if I don't drain it, the moisture being pushed out during
roasting also pushes out the marinade flavor.

Other recipes can tolerate the additional moisture just fine. As is the
case with many things, the answer it ----- it all depends....

This seems sensible to me. In the past the salting/draining process
also helped get rid of bitterness, but today's eggplants rarely need
that. For some recipes you can also use Japanese or Chinese
eggplants, which don't need any excess moisture removed. -aem

"Andie Z" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:4gXQf.651$Rb.244@trndny05...

Quoted message said:

Is it necessary to salt egg plant and wrap in towels like my Italian wife
does?

In my view it is not necessary unless your eggplants are bitter. Some
cultivars of eggplant seem to be more bitter than others and those picked
later (ie when the seeds are starting to mature or have matured) will tend
to be bitter. I grow my own and never salt them. If I have to buy
supermarket produce in the off season I still don't salt them and it is very
rare that they are bitter.

So why not salt them just in case? To keep up a low(ish) salt diet.

Some say that salting improves the texture by drawing out some of the water
which is supposed to reduce the tendency for them to act like sponges for
oil. I avoid this issue by using one of the following methods:

- microwave with no oil at all
- coat in egg and breadcrumb to keep out the oil when 'wet' frying
- when grilling or 'dry' frying, paint with a limted amount of oil and just
keep cooking if they get dry, the outside will still brown and the inside
will still soften without gallons of oil

David