Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Summer Squash
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the squash
Peel the squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into thick slices.
Cook and mash
Boil the slices in a small amount of water for 30 to 45 minutes.
Drain the squash well and mash it through a colander.
Place the mashed squash on the back of the stove to dry, stirring occasionally.
Season and serve
Season with butter, pepper, and salt.
Optionally, cut into pieces and fry like eggplant.
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.
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Summer squash
- Forms the main body of the dish once cooked and mashed.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the mashed squash a smoother mouthfeel and flavor.
The step that matters
Drain the squash well. Squash holds a lot of water. Leftover moisture thins the mash, so draining and drying it on the stove helps it stay thick and concentrated in flavor.
“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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