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Dessert

Squash Pudding

A baked custard made from squash, eggs, sugar, butter, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Squash Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the squash

  1. Peel and cut the squash into 1-inch pieces.

  2. Place the squash in a saucepan with a little water.

  3. Stew gently for 3 to 4 hours, ensuring it doesn't burn.

  4. Once soft, rub the squash through a sieve.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar and spice.

  2. Warm the butter and stir it into the mixture.

  3. Add the milk or cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Line deep plates with pastry.

  2. Pour the mixture into the plates.

  3. Cover the crust with a rim of paper to prevent burning.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mace + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 filling, giving the pudding its body and moisture.
Eggs
Set the filling as they cook, giving it a firm, custard-like structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smoother, softer texture.
Milk or cream
Adds liquid and richness, keeping the filling moist and tender as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly at the surface.

The step that matters

Stewing the squash until soft. The squash must be cooked until fully soft and then pushed through a sieve so the filling is smooth. Gentle heat and stirring prevent scorching, since sugars and starches in the squash burn easily.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk. 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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