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Stewed Squash

A creamy squash dish cooked with butter, cream, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Squash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the squash

  1. Peel the squash and cut it into small pieces, removing the seeds.

  2. Boil the squash in salted water until tender, then drain and mash it.

Cook and serve

  1. Return the mashed squash to the saucepan and add butter, cream, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook and stir constantly until the mixture is dry.

  3. Serve hot.

  4. For a soufflé, fold in the beaten egg whites and bake for 20 minutes.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  4. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Squash
Forms the main body of the dish, giving bulk and a soft, mashable texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing flavor and a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the mash into a creamy texture.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in for a soufflé, they trap air and provide lift and structure when baked.

The step that matters

Cooking the mash until dry. Stirring constantly keeps the mixture from scorching on the pan bottom. Driving off excess moisture gives a thick texture, which matters because wet mash will not hold its shape or rise well in a soufflé.

“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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