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Pumpkin with Parmesan Cheese

A baked pumpkin dish topped with Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pumpkin with Parmesan Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pumpkin

  1. Peel and wash the pumpkin, then steep it in salt water for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the pumpkin from the water and drain it.

  3. Cut the pumpkin into slices as needed.

Cook the slices

  1. In a stew pan, melt the butter and add the pumpkin slices.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and aromatic spice.

  3. Fry for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a buttered gratin dish, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and small bits of butter.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes and serve.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pumpkin + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin
Forms the bulk of the gratin and becomes tender as it cooks through.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.
Bread crumbs
Crisp up in the oven, adding a crunchy contrast to the soft pumpkin.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the pumpkin slices brown lightly while frying.

The step that matters

Frying the pumpkin slices. Stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps the butter from burning and the slices from scorching, while letting them take on color and flavor before baking.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, parmesan cheese, bread):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parmesan cheese, bread. 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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