How to Pick an Eggplant at the Grocery Store

Eggplants are delicious in lasagna or a parmigiana. Picking an eggplant correctly is important to the success of any eggplant recipe. An eggplant that is picked too late may taste bitter and have too many seeds. If you pick an eggplant too early, it will be too hard. As long as you know what to look for before you head to the grocery store, you will be able to pick the perfect eggplant.

You will need:

Eggplant
Your five senses

Follow these steps:

Step 1:
Examine the size of the eggplant. A large eggplant is not the best choice. It was probably picked too late which means it will have a large amount of hard seeds and will be bitter in taste. A small eggplant was probably picked too early. Look for eggplants that are medium in size compared to all of the others.

Step 2:
Examine the skin of the eggplant. If you notice any soft spots or spots that are brown in color, avoid them. These are signs that the eggplant is going bad.

Step 3:
Check the firmness of the eggplant. To do this you need to press your thumb on the skin of the eggplant. You want the skin to bounce back after you press your thumb on it. If it doesn't, it is old or picked too late. If your press your thumb on the eggplant and the skin doesn't move at all, it was picked too early.

Step 4:
Lift the eggplant up and see how heavy it is. An eggplant should feel heavier than it looks. If it doesn't feel heavy enough, tap on it with your fingers. If it sounds hollow it is no good. Don't buy it.

Tips:
Use your eggplant within two days of purchasing it to get the best flavor out of it. Eggplants go bad quickly.

Warning:
If your eggplant isn't used right away, don't eat the skin. Peel it off and just cook the insides.