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Cymlings or Summer Squash

A boiled summer squash dish seasoned with butter, pepper, coarse sea salt, and a little cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

Cymlings or Summer Squash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Press your nail through the skin of the squash to check for tenderness.

  2. Boil the squash whole or cut into thick slices in minimal water for 30 to 45 minutes.

Mash and dry

  1. Drain the squash well and mash it.

  2. Place the mashed squash on the back part of the stove to dry for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Season

  1. Season with butter, pepper, coarse sea salt, and a little cream.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream 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 squash
Forms the main body of the dish, and its moisture is driven off during drying to give a thicker texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds fat and creaminess, softening the mash's texture.

The step that matters

Drain the squash well and dry the mash. Excess water left in the squash dilutes the flavour and makes the mash loose and watery. Draining and drying on low heat concentrates the squash and gives a thicker, more stable texture before seasoning.

“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.

More summer squash recipes

Mashed 18Boiled 8Fried 8Stuffed 4 See all 19 →

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