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Scalloped Squash

A baked squash dish with eggs, milk, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Scalloped Squash

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the squash

  1. Cook the squash until tender, then mash and pass through a sieve.

Mix and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the mashed squash with beaten eggs, melted butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

  2. Stir the mixture thoroughly and pour it into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove the cover and brown lightly before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Squash
Forms the soft, moist body of the dish once mashed.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give it structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the custard-like mixture.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, lightly browned topping during baking.
Melted butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture thoroughly. Evenly blending the mashed squash with the eggs and milk keeps the texture smooth and ensures the eggs set uniformly rather than in pockets.

“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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