Selecting the Right Eggplant - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. I have a couple of eggplants here. I wanted to actually demonstrate to you how you can select a great eggplant. The important thing is they should be firm. You can also tell just by the look of it. It is really nice and shiny. These are actually both good eggplants. If I am pressing into the flesh there, there is hardly any give at all. If the eggplant is older it starts to feel kind of mushy on the outside. Another important thing is we do not want to have eggplants that are bitter. So a fresh eggplant is less likely to be bitter. And even I find the smaller eggplants are not quite as bitter as the older ones too. This is an Italian eggplant. They grow to about this size or they can sometimes be a little bit smaller. One thing that you can do if it is starting to get a little bit older, you can peel the flesh off it, the outer skin rather. That would take away that leathery texture in the meal. Actually when I make eggplant parm I take the skin off anyway regardless whether it is fresh or not because I just think it gives it a much nicer texture. So there are a couple of tips about eggplant.