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Becel® Holiday Butternut Squash with Apple and Cranberries

"While this dish begs to gain a seat at your holiday table along with the roast turkey, it also pairs well with a weeknight skinless chicken dinner. Try this recipe tonight using Becel® Buttery Taste, with irresistible flavor and 80% less saturated fat than butter."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butternut squash and apple work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 74 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep15 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and lightly grease a large baking dish or rimmed sheet pan.

  2. Place the butternut squash cubes and apple cubes in the dish. Pour the melted Becel margarine over them and toss until evenly coated.

  3. Roast for 20 minutes, until the squash starts to soften and brown at the edges.

  4. Meanwhile, stir together the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg if using. Optional: skip the nutmeg if you prefer.

  5. Remove the dish from the oven. Sprinkle the dried cranberries and the sugar and spice mixture over the squash and apples, then toss gently.

  6. Return to the oven and roast for another 20 to 25 minutes, stirring once halfway, until the squash is fork-tender and the sugar has melted into a glaze.

  7. Serve warm, spooning any pan juices over the top.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butternut squash + appletop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together74 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Butternut squash + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butternut squash, apple, cinnamon, sugar):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut squash, apple, cinnamon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).