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Mashed Summer Squash
Select squashes of about even size. If quite mature, quarter, and remove seeds. If quite young, they may be cooked whole. Steam or cook in a very small quantity of water, allowing as much of the water as possible to evaporate at the last of the cooking. Unless the squash is quite dry, drain the liquid from it. Mash, season with a little butter, salt and cream. Summer squash may be sliced and fried like egg plant.
A plain vegetable side that depends almost entirely on managing water. The instructions are sound; what they assume is a cook standing at the stove judging dryness by eye.
- The hinge: drive off the waterSummer squash is roughly 95 percent water, and mashed squash turns to soup if that water stays in. Cook covered in a very little water, as the recipe says, then uncover for the last few minutes so the steam escapes, and drain hard in a colander before mashing. Pressing the drained squash against the colander with the back of a spoon helps further.
- What "summer squash" meantIn American books of this period the term covers crookneck, straightneck, pattypan and scallop squashes. Zucchini, which came into general English-language cookbook use later, works equally well here, though its thinner flesh gives a looser mash.
- Mature versus youngA mature summer squash has a tough rind and developed seeds, both of which should go. Anything under about six inches can be cooked whole with skin and all, and will need less cooking and less draining.
- TimingSteamed over boiling water, young squash is tender in 8 to 12 minutes; quartered mature squash takes 15 to 20. Test with a knife tip rather than the clock, since size varies more than the recipe admits.
- "A little butter... and cream"Unmeasured, as was normal. For two pounds of squash, start with a tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of heavy cream and add more only if the mash is stiff; too much cream and there is nothing to hold it together.
- The frying variant"Fried like egg plant" means slices dredged in seasoned flour or crumbs and cooked in shallow fat. Salt the slices and let them drain 20 minutes first, as with eggplant, or they will steam in the pan instead of browning.
- YieldTwo pounds of squash, trimmed, gives roughly three cups of mash and serves four as a side.
Summer squashes are New World cucurbits, domesticated in Mesoamerica and grown across North America long before European settlement, and the soft-rinded varieties had to be eaten young and fresh rather than stored like winter squash. That perishability plausibly made them a high-summer, garden-adjacent food, which may be why period cookbooks treat them briskly and without ceremony, and why the recipe's one real concern is the water they carry.