white eggplant

I received a white eggplant in the farm box this week. I have read that they don't need to be salted like the purple ones, but I wanted to check here to see what you all think before I commit to salting/not salting. Thanks in advance.

Kristen W.
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5 Comments

David September 20, 2013
Sounds good, peel, salt, saute
 
Kristen W. September 20, 2013
Oh wait, I meant peel and GO AHEAD with the salting, since I'll be sauteing!
 
Kristen W. September 20, 2013
Thanks for your thoughts. David, I have read the column about whether to salt eggplant. My own experience is that unless I'm using Japanese eggplants, I have found them to be sweeter when I salt them. Agree with you though on the point about salting them before sauteing them in oil. In this case, I plan to make something ratatouille-ish (I happen to have gotten a lot of ingredients in the CSA box that will work well in a ratatouille), so I will be sauteing them in oil, so I wonder if I should just peel them first but skip the salting...
 
David September 20, 2013
White eggplants are less acidic/bitter than purple. So if you salt to remove bitterness you might not need to. I only salt eggplant if I'm going to saute them in oil because I think it keeps them from drinking as much oil. The skins on white eggplant are thicker...almost inedible so I think they're typically better baked than grilled or sauteed. There have been two great columns on food52 recently, one on whether to salt eggplants or not and another on a recipe that involves microwaving them. I think the white eggplants would do well in this microwave recipe. You should look both columns up...sorry to not provide url's
 
SMSF September 20, 2013
I have not heard that about white eggplant, but then again, I don't bother with salting any eggplant. It just seems to be an extra step with no benefits (I used to salt, but don't do it anymore).
 
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