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Summer Squash
Wash and pare squash and cut in thick slices, and boil or steam until tender. Mashed: Place cheesecloth over colander. Pour boiled squash into it and press out all water. Remove to stew pan, stir and beat, seasoning with butter, salt and pepper. Fried: Wash and pare squash; slice about one-half inch thick, sprinkle with salt and pepper and dredge with flour, and fry until nice brown, in half butter and half lard. Cook slowly, with cover over frying pan.
Three methods for one vegetable: plain boiled or steamed, mashed, and pan-fried. The whole success of the mashed version rests on getting the water out.
- Which squash"Summer squash" here means the thin-skinned crooknecks and pattypans of a home garden, picked young. Zucchini and yellow squash work identically. Skip the paring on anything under about 8 inches; the skin is tender and holds the slices together.
- Press hard, then press againSummer squash is roughly 95 percent water, and this is why the recipe sends it through cheesecloth. Let it drain, then twist the cloth and squeeze until no more liquid comes; a watery mash cannot be corrected with butter.
- Cooking timeThick slices need 8 to 12 minutes boiling or steaming, no more. The old habit of cooking until fully collapsed produces something the cloth cannot rescue.
- Half butter and half lardCutting the butter with lard dilutes the milk solids that scorch, so the pan tolerates a little more heat than butter alone. Equal parts butter and a neutral oil or shortening does much the same; all butter over a slow flame also works if you watch it.
- The covered panCovering traps steam and softens the interior, which suits the recipe's slow cooking, though the trapped steam works against the flour coating. Uncover for the last two or three minutes per side if the crust has gone soft.
- Dredging that sticksSalting draws moisture to the surface, so flour after salting, not before, and put the slices into the fat straight away. Flour left sitting on wet squash turns to paste.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. About 2 lb of squash, or three medium, is a reasonable amount for four as a side dish either way.