Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Squash
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare the squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into small pieces.
Cook and mash
Boil the squash in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes for young squash.
Drain the squash and press it through a vegetable press into a saucepan.
Finish and serve
In the saucepan, mix the squash with salt, pepper, and a roux made from butter and flour.
Stir and beat the mixture for one minute until creamy, then serve.
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.
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Squash
- Forms the main body of the dish and, once mashed, gives it a soft, creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and with the flour forms the roux that thickens the squash.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the mashed squash and gives it body.
The step that matters
Stirring the squash and roux. Flour must be cooked with the fat and the mixture stirred well so the roux thickens evenly without lumps or a raw starchy taste.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.