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Squash Puff

A baked squash puff served with a cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Squash Puff

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the puff

  1. Press the cooked squash through a sieve into a bowl.

  2. Add melted butter, milk, salt, pepper, and egg yolks to the squash and mix thoroughly.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  5. Place the mold in a pan of hot water and bake until the center is firm.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, stir in 1 tablespoon of flour, and cook for 1 minute.

  2. Gradually add the cream or rich milk, stirring until thickened.

  3. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, celery salt, and mace.

Serve

  1. Serve the squash puff turned out from the mold with the cream sauce.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the squash and egg whites, when folded in, lighten and set the puff.
Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, giving the puff a light, risen texture.
Cooked squash
Forms the bulk of the puff, supplying moisture and flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and a tender texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that gives the cream sauce body.
Cream or rich milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding richness and smooth body.

The step that matters

Bake the puff in hot water until the center is firm. Baking in a water bath moderates the heat so the egg custard sets gently without curdling or cracking. Underbaking leaves the center loose, while overbaking makes it tough and dry.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, pepper, egg, flour, cream, celery):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, egg, flour, cream, celery. 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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