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
Wash the summer squashes and cut them into pieces, removing the seeds.
Cook and mash
Boil the pieces until tender.
Drain and squeeze out all the water.
Mash the squash with butter, pepper, and salt.
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 and, once cooked, becomes soft enough to mash smooth.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which gives the mash a richer mouthfeel and carries flavor.
The step that matters
Squeeze out all the water. Summer squash holds a lot of water. Leftover moisture dilutes the flavor and makes the mash loose and watery, so draining and squeezing well keeps it thick and concentrated.
“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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