Name: Scalloped Squash
Ingredients: 2 cups squash, boiled and mashed; 2 large eggs, yolks only; 3 tablespoons milk; 1 tablespoon butter, melted and mixed with flour; Salt and pepper to taste; Breadcrumbs for topping

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 ↓

Scalloped Squash

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

2 cups squash, boiled and mashed
2 large eggs, yolks only
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted and mixed with flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Breadcrumbs for topping

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

Boil and mash the squash, then let it cool.
Beat the yolks of the eggs and whip them into the cooled squash.
Add the milk, melted butter mixed with flour, salt, and pepper; mix well.
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

Bake and serve

Cover with breadcrumbs and bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.
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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 soft, moist body of the dish once mashed.
Eggs: Egg yolks bind the squash and help the dish set as it bakes.
Milk: Adds moisture and makes the filling smoother and looser.
Butter mixed with flour: Flour thickens the filling slightly while butter adds richness.

The step that matters

Whipping the yolks into the cooled squash. If the squash is still hot, it can begin to scramble the egg yolks before baking, leaving curdled streaks instead of a smooth, evenly set custard.

“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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Scalloped Squash