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Stuffed Squash Au Gratin

A baked dish of boiled summer squash stuffed with a mixture of egg, cream, butter, and seasonings, topped with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Stuffed Squash Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the squash

  1. Peel and wash the summer squashes.

  2. Boil the summer squashes until tender.

  3. Steam the small squash whole until tender.

  4. Score scallops near the top of the small squash with a small biscuit cutter, then remove the top.

  5. Take out the seeds to leave a perfect shell.

Make the filling

  1. Mash the boiled squashes.

  2. Mix the mashed squashes with the beaten egg, scalded cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into the squash shell set in an au gratin dish.

  2. Spread cracker crumbs mixed with melted butter over the top.

  3. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 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. Egg + creamtop 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

Summer squashes
Cooked and mashed to form the soft, moist body of the filling.
Egg
Binds the mashed squash so the filling sets firm when baked.
Scalded cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smoother, softer texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavour in the filling and the crumb topping.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when mixed with melted butter and baked.

The step that matters

Take out the seeds to leave a perfect shell. Removing the seeds and fibrous core leaves a clean, sturdy cavity that holds the filling without tearing or leaking during baking.

“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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