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Dessert

Squash Cakes

A fried batter made from cooked squash, sour milk, egg, salt, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Squash Cakes

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Squash Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine the cooked squash, sour milk, egg, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add flour until the batter is thick enough to fry.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Cooked squash
Adds moisture, body, and mild sweetness to the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and keeps the cakes tender.
Egg
Binds the batter so the cakes hold together while frying.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
Flour
Thickens the batter and sets into a firm structure as the cakes fry.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter soaks up oil and the cakes turn greasy instead of crisp and golden. The batter should also be thick enough that spoonfuls hold their shape rather than spreading in the pan.

“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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