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Stewed Squash

A simple squash dish simmered with milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Squash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the squash and cut it into quarters.

  2. Boil the squash in cold water until tender.

  3. Drain the water and mash the squash until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add milk or cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Beat well with a spoon until light and smooth.

  3. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Squash
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its soft, mashable body.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the mash and softening its texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and richer flavour.

The step that matters

Drain the squash well before mashing. Excess cooking water left in the squash thins the mash and makes it watery. Draining thoroughly lets the milk or cream and butter give a thick, smooth texture.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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