By Joel Denker
The “mad apple,” as eggplant was known centuries ago, has been transformed into a voluptuous vegetable. The member of the terrifying nightshade family was long feared for the maladies imputed to it. Eggplant also considered unappetizing. But is there now another vegetable that so often takes center stage, that assumes so many incarnations—fried, baked, pureed, grilled, stewed, stuffed, pickled?
Native to India (or, as some suggest, Southeast Asia), the once-prickly shrub with spiny leaves grew wild on the hillsides. It bore little resemblance to today’s familiar variety, a plump purple hybrid. The early eggplant was smaller than a baseball. Its fruit was also intensely bitter.
In India, the wild eggplant was domesticated. Farmers bred spineless plants with bigger, less acrid fruits.
From its earliest days, the eggplant aroused fear. It was known as vatingana, belonging to the “windyclass,” in Sanskrit. In India, insanity was likened to volatile air currents.
The eggplant had a compensating virtue. It was believed to be erotically stimulating. The Kama Sutra claims that rubbing eggplant juice on the male organ produces a month-long erection.
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To learn more about eggplant, see The Carrot Purple and Other Curious Stories of the Food We Eat, coming in October from Rowman & Littlefield: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442248861/The-Carrot-Purple-and-Other-Curious-Stories-of-the-Food-We-Eat.
