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Winter Squash

A simple mashed winter squash seasoned with sugar, 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: Winter squash and pepper work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 100 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Winter Squash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds.

  2. Peel the pieces and stew them in minimal water for 1 hour.

Mash and season

  1. Mash the squash in the kettle; if watery, cook on low heat, stirring until dry.

  2. Season with sugar, butter, salt, and pepper, being careful not to burn.

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. Winter squash + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Winter squash + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Winter squash + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together95 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Winter squash
Forms the mash itself, giving the dish its body and mild, sweet flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, when heated, helps the surface take on light browning.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Drying the mash on low heat. Squash holds a lot of water, and excess moisture makes the mash loose and bland. Cooking gently while stirring evaporates water without scorching the sugars, which would burn and taste bitter.

Swap the winter squash

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Winter squashthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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