Scalloped Eggplant

Recipe No. 594 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Vegetables. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

• Eggplant — 25 pounds
• Salt — as needed
• Water, boiling — as needed
• Bread crumbs, moist — 2 pounds (4 No. 56 dippers)
• Butter, melted — 12 ounces (½ mess kit cup)
• Onions, chopped — 12 ounces (¾ No. 56 dipper)
• Parsley, chopped — 2½ ounces (⅓ mess kit cup)
• Salt — 4 ounces (8 mess kit spoons)
• Pepper — ¼ ounce (1 mess kit spoon)
• Milk, evaporated — 5 — 14½-ounce cans

Water (for milk) — 2 quarts (2 No. 56 dippers)

• Cheese, finely chopped — 6 ounces (½ mess kit cup)

Directions

Key ingredients

Evaporated Milk

1. Wash eggplant; pare and cut into cubes.
2. Add boiling salted water to eggplant. Cover and heat to boiling point; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes or until tender. Drain well.
3. Pour ¾ of the melted butter over crumbs; cook until light brown.
4. Fry onions and parsley in remaining butter. Add to crumbs.
5. Arrange alternate layers of eggplant and crumb mixture in well greased baking pans, beginning and finishing with crumbs. Sprinkle each layer with salt and pepper.
6. Mix milk and water; heat. Pour over layers in baking pans. Sprinkle with cheese.
7. Bake in moderate oven (350° F.) 1 hour.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Eggplant — 2 lb Salt — to taste Water, boiling — to taste Bread crumbs, moist — 2½ oz Butter, melted — 1 oz Onions, chopped — 1 oz Parsley, chopped — about 1¼ tsp Salt — about 2 tsp Pepper — a pinch Milk, evaporated — ½ can (14½ oz) Water (for milk) — 10¼ tbsp Cheese, finely chopped — ½ oz

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 594, Vegetables. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.