Eggplant

The name eggplant is usual in North American English and Australian English. First recorded in 1763, the word "eggplant" was originally applied to white cultivars, which look very much like hen's eggs (see image).[19][20][21] Similar names are widespread in other languages, such as the Icelandic term eggaldin or the Welsh planhigyn ŵy.

The white, egg-shaped varieties of the eggplant's fruits are also known as garden eggs,[22] a term first attested in 1811.[23] The Oxford English Dictionary records that between 1797 and 1888, the name vegetable egg was also used.[24]

Whereas eggplant was coined in English, most of the diverse other European names for the plant derive from the Arabic word bāḏinjān (Arabic: باذنجان).[25] Bāḏinjān is itself a loan-word in Arabic, whose earliest traceable origins lie in the Dravidian languages. The Hobson-Jobson dictionary comments that 'probably there is no word of the kind which has undergone such extraordinary variety of modifications, whilst retaining the same meaning, as this'.[26]

In English usage, modern names deriving from Arabic bāḏinjān include:

• Aubergine, usual in British English (as well as German, French and Dutch).
• Brinjal or brinjaul, usual in South Asia and South African English.[27]
• Solanum melongena, the Linnaean name.

Illustration of an eggplant (upper picture) in a 1717 manuscript of a work by the thirteenth-century Persian Zakariya al-Qazwini.

All the aubergine-type names have the same origin, in the Dravidian languages. Modern descendants of this ancient Dravidian word include Malayalam vaṟutina and Tamil vaṟutuṇai.[25]

The Dravidian word was borrowed into the Indo-Aryan languages, giving ancient forms such as Sanskrit and Pali vātiṅ-gaṇa (alongside Sanskrit vātigama) and Prakrit vāiṃaṇa. According to the entry brinjal in the Oxford English Dictionary, the Sanskrit word vātin-gāna denoted 'the class (that removes) the wind-disorder (windy humour)': that is, vātin-gāna came to be the name for eggplants because they were thought to cure flatulence. The modern Hindustani words descending directly from the Sanskrit name are baingan and began.[28]

The Indic word vātiṅ-gaṇa was then borrowed into Persian as bādingān. Persian bādingān was borrowed in turn into Arabic as bāḏinjān (or, with the definite article, al-bāḏinjān). From Arabic, the word was borrowed into European languages.[25]

In al-Andalus, the Arabic word (al-)bāḏinjān was borrowed into the Romance languages in forms beginning with b- or, with the definite article included, alb-:[25]

• Portuguese bringella, bringiela, beringela.[28]
• Spanish berenjena, alberenjena.

The Spanish word alberenjena was then borrowed into French, giving aubergine (along with French dialectal forms like albergine, albergaine, albergame, and belingèle). The French name was then borrowed into British English, appearing there first in the late eighteenth century.[25]

Through the colonial expansion of Portugal, the Portuguese form bringella was borrowed into a variety of other languages:[25]

• Indian, Malaysian, Singaporean and South African English brinjal, brinjaul (first attested in the seventeenth century).
• West Indian English brinjalle and (through folk-etymology) brown-jolly.

Thus although Indian English brinjal ultimately originates in languages of the Indian Subcontinent, it actually came into Indian English via Portuguese.

Illustrations of an eggplant from a possibly fifteenth-century French manuscript of a work by Matthaeus Platearius. The word melonge, below the illustration, has a blue initial M-.

The Arabic word bāḏinjān was borrowed into Greek by the eleventh century CE. The Greek loans took a variety of forms, but crucially they began with m-, partly because Greek lacked the initial b- sound and partly through folk-etymological association with the Greek word μέλας (melas), 'black'. Attested Greek forms include ματιζάνιον (matizanion, eleventh-century), μελιντζάνα (melintzana, fourteenth-century), and μελιντζάνιον (melintzanion, seventeenth-century).[25]

From Greek, the word was borrowed into Italian and medieval Latin, and onwards into French. Early forms include:[25]

• Melanzāna, recorded in Sicilian in the twelfth century.
• Melongena, recorded in Latin in the thirteenth century.
• Melongiana, recorded in Veronese in the fourteenth century.
• Melanjan, recorded in Old French.

From these forms came the botanical Latin melongēna. This was used by Tournefort as a genus name in 1700, then by Linnaeus as a species name in 1753. It remains in scientific use.[25]

These forms also gave rise to the Caribbean English melongene.[25]

The Italian melanzana, through folk-etymology, was adapted to mela insana ('mad apple'): already by the thirteenth century, this name had given rise to a tradition that eggplants could cause insanity. Translated into English as 'mad-apple', 'rage-apple', or 'raging apple', this name for eggplants is attested from 1578 and the form 'mad-apple' may still be found in Southern American English.[29]

The plant is also known as guinea squash in Southern American English. The term guinea in the name originally denoted the fact that the fruits were associated with West Africa.[29]

It has been known as 'Jew's apple', apparently in relation to a belief that the fruit was first imported to the West Indies by Jewish people.[30]

• S. m. var. esculentum – common aubergine, including white varieties, with many cultivars[31]
• S. m. var. depressum – dwarf aubergine
• S. m. var. serpentium – snake aubergine

Bt brinjal is a transgenic eggplant that contains a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.[32] This variety was designed to give the plant resistance to lepidopteran insects such as the brinjal fruit and shoot borer (Leucinodes orbonalis) and fruit borer (Helicoverpa armigera).[32][33]

On 9 February 2010, the Environment Ministry of India imposed a moratorium on the cultivation of Bt brinjal after protests against regulatory approval of cultivated Bt brinjal in 2009, stating the moratorium would last "for as long as it is needed to establish public trust and confidence".[32] This decision was deemed controversial, as it deviated from previous practices with other genetically modified crops in India.[34] Bt brinjal was approved for commercial cultivation in Bangladesh in 2013.[35]

Korean and Japanese eggplant varieties are typically thin-skinned.[38]

In Chinese cuisine, eggplants are known as qiézi (茄子). They are often deep fried and made into dishes such as yúxiāng-qiézi ("fish fragrance eggplant")[39] or di sān xiān ("three earthen treasures"). Elsewhere in China, such as in Yunnan cuisine (in particular the cuisine of the Dai people) they are barbecued or roasted, then split and either eaten directly with garlic, chilli, oil and coriander, or the flesh is removed and pounded to a mash (typically with a wooden pestle and mortar) before being eaten with rice or other dishes.

In Japanese cuisine, eggplants are known as nasu or nasubi and use the same characters as Chinese (茄子). An example of it use is in the dish hasamiyaki (挟み焼き) in which slices of eggplant are grilled and filled with a meat stuffing.[40] Eggplants also feature in several Japanese expression and proverbs, such as "Don't feed autumn eggplant to your wife" (秋茄子は嫁に食わすな, akinasu ha yomi ni kuwasuna) (because their lack of seeds will reduce her fertility) and "Always listen to your parents" (親の意見と茄子の花は千に一つも無駄はない, oya no iken to nasubi no hana ha sen ni hitotsu mo muda ha nai, literally: "not even one in a thousand of a parents' opinion or an eggplant flower are in vain").[41][42]

In Korean cuisine, eggplants are known as gaji (가지). They are steamed, stir-fried, or pan-fried and eaten as banchan (side dishes), such as namul, bokkeum, and jeon.[43][44]

• 
  Chinese yúxiāng-qiézi (fish-fragrance eggplants)
• 
  Korean dureup-gaji-jeon (pan-fried eggplants and angelica tree shoots)

In the Philippines, eggplants are of the long and slender purple variety. They are known as talong and is widely used in many stew and soup dishes, like pinakbet.[45] However the most popular eggplant dish is tortang talong, an omelette made from grilling an eggplant, dipping it into beaten eggs, and pan-frying the mixture. The dish is characteristically served with the stalk attached. The dish has several variants, including rellenong talong which is stuffed with meat and vegetables.[46][47] Eggplant can also be grilled, skinned and eaten as a salad called ensaladang talong.[48] Another popular dish is adobong talong, which is diced eggplant prepared with vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic as an adobo.[49]

• 
  Philippine tortang talong, an eggplant omelette made from grilled skinned eggplants
• 
  Philippine ensaladang talong, a salad on grilled and skinned green eggplant
• 
  Philippine rellenong talong, a variant of tortang talong stuffed with ground meat and various vegetables
• 
  Philippine pinakbet, a mixed vegetable dish seasoned with bagoong (fermented shrimp paste)

Eggplant is widely used in its native India, for example in sambar (a tamarind lentil stew), dalma (a dal preparation with vegetables, native to Odisha), chutney, curry, and achaar (a pickled dish). Owing to its versatile nature and wide use in both everyday and festive Indian food, it is often described as the "king of vegetables". Roasted, skinned, mashed, mixed with onions, tomatoes, and spices, and then slow cooked gives the South Asian dish baingan bharta or gojju, similar to salată de vinete in Romania. Another version of the dish, begun-pora (eggplant charred or burnt), is very popular in Bangladesh and the east Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal where the pulp of the vegetable is mixed with raw chopped shallot, green chilies, salt, fresh coriander, and mustard oil. Sometimes fried tomatoes and deep-fried potatoes are also added, creating a dish called begun bhorta. In a dish from Maharashtra called bharli vangi, small brinjals are stuffed with ground coconut, peanuts, onions, tamarind, jaggery and masala spices, and then cooked in oil. Maharashtra and the adjacent state of Karnataka also have an eggplant-based vegetarian pilaf called 'vangi bhat' [50]..

• 
  Brinjal masala fry
• 
  Brinjal and mango sambar

Eggplant is often stewed, as in the French ratatouille, or deep-fried as in the Italian parmigiana di melanzane, the Turkish karnıyarık, or Turkish, Greek, and Levantine musakka/moussaka, and Middle Eastern and South Asian dishes. Eggplants can also be battered before deep-frying and served with a sauce made of tahini and tamarind. In Iranian cuisine, it is blended with whey as kashk e bademjan, tomatoes as mirza ghassemi, or made into stew as khoresht-e-bademjan. It can be sliced and deep-fried, then served with plain yogurt (optionally topped with a tomato and garlic sauce), such as in the Turkish dish patlıcan kızartması (meaning fried aubergines), or without yogurt, as in patlıcan şakşuka. Perhaps the best-known Turkish eggplant dishes are imam bayıldı (vegetarian) and karnıyarık (with minced meat). It may also be roasted in its skin until charred, so the pulp can be removed and blended with other ingredients, such as lemon, tahini, and garlic, as in the Arab baba ghanoush and the similar Greek melitzanosalata. A mix of roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers, chopped onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, celery, and spices is called zacuscă in Romania, and ajvar or pinjur in the Balkans.

A Spanish dish called escalivada in Catalonia calls for strips of roasted aubergine, sweet pepper, onion, and tomato. In Andalusia, eggplant is mostly cooked thinly sliced, deep-fried in olive oil and served hot with honey (berenjenas a la Cordobesa). In the La Mancha region of central Spain, a small eggplant is pickled in vinegar, paprika, olive oil, and red peppers. The result is berenjena of Almagro, Ciudad Real. A Levantine specialty is makdous, another pickling of eggplants, stuffed with red peppers and walnuts in olive oil. Eggplant can be hollowed out and stuffed with meat, rice, or other fillings, and then baked. In Georgia, for example, it is fried and stuffed with walnut paste to make nigvziani badrijani.

• 
  Parmigiana di melanzane, eggplant parmesan
• 
  Penne with eggplant and basil in yogurt-tomato sauce.
• 
  Almagro eggplant

In Iranian cuisine, eggplant (called bādenjān or bādemjān in Persian) can be used in both appetizers and main courses.[51] It can also be pickled in vinegar.[51] The ideal eggplant in Iranian cuisine is long, straight, firm, and black.[51] Based on how al-Razi uses the color of eggplant as a shorthand for purpleness in his Kitab al-hawi, it can be assumed that the dark purple kind of eggplant was the widely grown variety in Iran at his time (9th century).[51] Its importance in Iran is alluded to in the Ain-i-Akbari of Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, which says "this vegetable is on sale in the markets in Iran all the year round and in such abundance that it is sold for 1.5 dams per seer" (which was a cheap price at that time).[51]

In Iran, unlike places like Greece, Turkey, and North Africa, eggplant is cooked peeled and usually seasoned with cinnamon or especially turmeric.[51] Most eggplant dishes are classified as nankhoreshi (eaten with bread), and they are commonly served as snacks alongside alcoholic beverages.[51]

The 14th-century poet Boshaq At'ema refers to an early eggplant dish called burani-e badenjan: chopped eggplant sautéed with onions and turmeric, then slowly cooked, and finally mixed with yogurt.[51] The combination of eggplant and kashk (condensed whey) is popular in Iranian cuisine; it is found in dishes like kashk o badenjan as well as ash-e kashk o badenjan (involving layers of sautéed eggplant, grilled onions, and red beans topped by kashk seasoned with turmeric).[51] Another eggplant dish is mast o badenjan, also known as nazkhatun in Tehran, which involves eggplant, yogurt, and dried mint.[51] Eggplant can also be cooked in stews (khoreshes), either with lamb (khoresh-e badenjan) or with chicken and either unripe grapes or pomegranate juice (mosamma-ye badenjan).[51] Variants of ab-gusht, eshkana, fesenjan, and kuku also make use of eggplant.[51] Some regional dishes involving eggplant include badenjan-polow, a dish mainly from Fars and Kerman that combines white rice with a paste of chopped sautéed eggplant, chopped meat, and spices; as well as the northern Iranian badenjan-e qasemi, a casserole using grilled eggplant, garlic, tomatoes, and eggs.[51]

Eggplants are traditionally among the foods that get preserved and stored for winter in Iran.[51] They are selected in the last month of summer, when they are most readily available, then peeled, and finally preserved in one of two ways.[51] In the first way, the peeled eggplants are cut, salted, and left to "sweat" (to make them less bilious); then they are sun-dried by hanging them on a line.[51] The dried eggplants are then rehydrated 24 hours before being cooked.[51] In the second way, the peeled eggplants are cooked in oil, put in a copper pot, and finally covered with plenty of hot oil, "which congeals to seal them".[51]

Medieval Iranian writers such as al-Razi and al-Biruni cautioned that eggplant contains harmful qualities, and it must be ripe and cooked before eating to neutralize them.[51] They wrote that it could cause heat and dryness and an excess of black bile, contributing to a wide range of health problems.[51] If the "salt" in it was removed, or it was cooked in oil or vinegar, then they wrote that eggplant gained healthy atttributes.[51] Present-day Iranian attitudes to the eggplant reflect this medical tradition's influence: the eggplant is "considered rather dangerous... a cook in Tehran will say that the poison must be taken out".[51] People also use eggplant seeds as an expectorant to relieve asthma and catarrh.[51]