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Boiled Squash
Peel a large winter or summer squash, or a couple of small ones, cut them into pieces about one-inch square, place them over the fire in a saucepan of boiling salted water, and boil until tender. Meanwhile, for three pints of squash, mix together in stewpan over the fire one tablespoonful each of flour and butter and stir them until they are brown; gradually add one pint of boiling water and a high seasoning of pepper and salt, and when it boils, set it aside until the squash is done. After the squash is drained from the water in which it was boiled, put it into the hot brown sauce and serve it without delay; or simply mash the boiled squash through a colander, beat it together with salt, pepper and butter, and serve.
A plain vegetable dish with two finishes: cubes in a brown butter sauce, or a simple mash. The sauce is a small brown roux, and browning it properly is the whole point.
- Brown the roux, don't scorch itOne tablespoon each of flour and butter cooked to a nutty brown takes about 5-8 minutes over medium heat with constant stirring. If it smells acrid or goes past a deep tan it will turn the dish bitter; start again.
- QuantitiesThree pints of cut squash is roughly 6 cups, or about 2 to 2 1/2 lb of peeled flesh — one large winter squash, or several summer squash. That sauce is thin by design, closer to a gravy than a bechamel.
- Which squash"Winter squash" here means the hard-shelled keepers — Hubbard, acorn and the like (butternut is a later variety). "Summer squash" is soft-skinned crookneck or marrow, which does not need peeling today and cooks in a fraction of the time.
- Timing differs sharply by typeWinter squash in 1-inch cubes wants 12-18 minutes to tender; summer squash is done in 4-6 and will collapse into water if given the full treatment. Test with a knife tip rather than the clock.
- Drain hardBoiled squash holds a great deal of water, which will thin the brown sauce to nothing. Let it sit in the colander a minute or two, and shake it, before it meets the sauce.
- The mash versionFor the second finish, press the drained squash through a colander or ricer and beat in butter, salt and pepper off the heat. If it is loose, dry it briefly in the pan over low heat before adding the butter.
- YieldSix cups of squash will serve roughly six to eight as a side dish.
Squash is one of the oldest cultivated American foods, native to the hemisphere long before European contact, and plainly boiled squash was a common nineteenth-century dish. Here the vegetable is not served plain but dressed in a small brown roux sauce, with a simpler mash offered as an alternative finish.