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To Bake Squash (Hubbard or other good squash)
To bake Hubbard or other good squash, wash and wipe dry and cut in pieces a suitable size for serving. Lay the pieces close together, skin side down, in a shallow baking pan and bake in a moderate oven an hour, or until thoroughly cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper and butter.
About as plain as a recipe gets, and it still works. The only things it leaves out are the oven number and how to deal with a squash that can weigh fifteen pounds.
- Moderate ovenUsually taken as somewhere around 350F; the book gives no number. At that heat an hour suits pieces two to three inches thick, and thinner pieces will want appreciably less.
- Cutting a HubbardA mature Hubbard has a hard, ridged shell that resists a chef's knife. Drop it on a hard floor or use a cleaver and a mallet to break it into manageable slabs, then trim to serving pieces and scrape out seeds and strings.
- Skin side down mattersThe shell acts as its own baking dish, holding in steam and keeping the flesh from drying or scorching against the pan. Do not turn the pieces partway through.
- No water, no coverThe recipe calls for neither. Baking dry rather than boiling keeps the flesh from going watery and concentrates its sweetness.
- Testing done"Thoroughly cooked" means a knife or skewer goes into the thickest part with no resistance and the cut surface has begun to brown at the edges. Underdone winter squash is starchy and bland.
- SeasoningButter, salt and pepper go on after baking, as the recipe directs. Season generously; Hubbard is dense and takes salt well.
- YieldA piece three to four inches square makes a reasonable portion; a small Hubbard of 6 to 8 lb, once shell and seeds are discounted, will serve something like eight.
- Other squashButtercup, kabocha, blue Hubbard and banana squash all behave the same way. Butternut and acorn are thinner-fleshed and will be done in 35 to 45 minutes.
Hubbard squash came into general American use in the second half of the nineteenth century, its name usually traced to Elizabeth Hubbard of Marblehead, Massachusetts, who is said to have brought the squash to the notice of the seedsman James J. H. Gregory; he catalogued it and the name stuck. Its virtue was keeping: a hard-shelled Hubbard laid in a cool cellar in October would still be sound in March, which is why household books of this period treat it as a winter staple rather than a seasonal treat. Baked winter squash was in any case a conventional accompaniment to roast venison and wildfowl.