I’ve come across a neat little trick regarding eggplants. When shopping for eggplants, you should choose a ‘male’ eggplant fruit because the male ones have fewer seeds and are less bitter. How can you tell? The female eggplants have a longish brown dimple at the blossom end whereas the male ones have a round dimple. Choose the ones with the round dimple. Great advice, if there is any truth to it!
- Are There Male and Female Eggplants?
- Varieties of Eggplant
- How To Choose the Best Eggplant
- Should You Salt Eggplants Before Cooking?
- Summary
Are There Male and Female Eggplants?
This is an internet myth similar to the claim that bell peppers are male or female and that you can tell by the number of lobes. Just as with the bell pepper, there is not truth to this rumor. Eggplant fruits do not have gender.
Eggplant flowers do have male and female organs but the fruits come from female organs. Their seeds will grow into plants with flowers that have male and female organs, and one again fruits will develop from the female parts of the plant. There is no sex difference in the fruits so the shape of the dimple has nothing do do with gender.
Whoever came up with this might have been trolling us, as the idea that the dimple that is ‘shaped like a slit’ is a bit too on the nose.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that there is nothing to the advice. There is an old-wive’s tale that says that the shape of the dimple can tell you which fruit has more seeds. According to this tip, the eggplants with a round dimple are the best. Also connected to this advice is the notion that the fruits with a round dimple will have a better texture and/or be less bitter. The details depend on the source.
You’ll have a hard time determining whether any of this is true unless you are willing to go through a couple of hundred eggplants, count the seeds and cook them in various ways to see which ones have the better texture and are less bitter, while taking meticulous notes, employing a tasting panel, and perhaps a qualified statistician to help you decine a proper study and crunch the numbers. My guess? It’s not true that the shape of the dimple has anything to do with…anything.
In reality, you will not always find eggplants with clearly defined blossom dimples and it’s quite possible that you will find, for example, that all the eggplants at your grocery store have round well-defined dimples or quite irregular shapes, with blotchy ends that don’t easily lend themselves to easy categorizations.
Varieties of Eggplant
The most common eggplant in U.S. supermarkets is the Western or Globe Eggplant. That’s the very large purple eggplant most of us are familiar with. Here are some other varieties that may be available depending on where you shop, although this is not an exhaustive list:
- Italian eggplant: still large but smaller than the globe with dark purple skin, a sweeter taste, and less meaty flesh.
- Chinese eggplant: long and quite slender with a lavender to purple skin; mild and sweet tasting with almost no seeds; Cooks up quick and easy in a stir-fry and is ideal for quicker cooking methods such as frying, grilling, etc.
- Japanese eggplant: long and slender like the Chinese eggplant but with a dark purple skin like the Western (Globe) eggplant. They are hard to tell apart from Chinese eggplants but tend to be smaller. Still sweet and mild.
- Thai eggplant (Southeast Asian eggplant): small round eggplant, the size of a cherry tomato, with a variety of colors. The green-striped is most important in Thai cooking. There are also purple and orange-red varieties.
- White eggplant: White eggplants can have a variety of shapes from round to oval or oblong. Their white skin is the reason that for the ‘egg’ monicker in eggplant. These eggplants have more seeds than other varieties and the older the fruit the more seeds. They are mild and sweet when cooked.
How To Choose the Best Eggplant
For all varieties of eggplant, choose one with smooth, glossy skin and a firm, but not overly firm flesh. You don’t want the eggplant to feel rock-hard, but if you press your finger and it easily gives in or is punctured, it is much too far gone. Ideally, a good eggplant should have a firm, springy texture. It should feel somewhat heavy for its size instead of very light.
Make sure there is no mold or other decay visible, especially on or around the stem end. The stem itself should be green, and not brown and dried out.
Modern eggplants are mostly bred for less bitterness. While there are no hard and fast rules, larger explants with more seeds will tend to be more bitter so choose smaller ones. You may still encounter a bitter eggplant now and again but most of the bitter astringency has been selectively bred out of the eggplants we buy today.
Should You Salt Eggplants Before Cooking?
If you are cooking a large eggplant like the typical Western globe, I would recommend salting. If there is any bitterness, then salting will help remove it. However, the biggest reason is that pre-salting eggplant slices will draw out a lot of excess water which will help concentrate the sweet flavor of the eggplant and give it a softer, more pleasing texture. As well, it will keep a bunch of water from leaching out of the eggplant into your finished dish.
If you are making eggplant parmesan, you’ll find that salting helps! Your breading will stay on better (make sure you dry the slices) and the texture will be soft, with a mild, sweet, and nutty flavor.
You do not have to salt today’s eggplants like the ones of old, which were very bitter, but if you have the time, I’d recommend you do.
Key Summary Points For “Should You Choose Male Eggplants Because They’re Less Seedy and Bitter?”
- You cannot buy male eggplants because there is no such thing. The idea that eggplants have gender is an internet myth.
- Even though the flowers of an eggplant have male and female organs, the eggplant fruit itself does not have gender.
- Contrary to popular belief, the shape of the dimple at the blossom end of the fruit does not indicate gender.
- Common eggplant varieties include the large Western/Globe eggplant, Italian eggplants, Chinese eggplant, Japanese eggplant, Thai eggplant, and white eggplant.
- When shopping, look for eggplants with smooth, glossy skin and firm, springy flesh. Avoid eggplants that feel too soft or have signs of decay.
- Choose smaller eggplants since larger eggplants with more seeds tend to be more bitter.
- To help remove bitterness before cooking, slice the eggplant and salt the slices. The salt will draw out excess water and take some of the bitter compounds with it. This results in a softer, more pleasing texture and a sweeter taste. Salting is especially helpful for large Western/Globe eggplants and when making Eggplant Parmesan.