After reading about Lisa’s butternut squach gnocci and talking to her about it this morning, I recalled my post last autumn when I compared various squashes and buttercup won. I bet that recipe (which already sounds wonderful) would be EVEN BETTER using buttercup.
On the outside it is not an attractive fruit. Here is a picture of some buttercup squash I am planning on baking this weekend for the rest of the week’s lunches:
Since the previous post was on a different blogging host and will eventually go away, I will paste it here:
BUTTERCUP, by a Landslide!
In my ongoing quest for the ultimate perfect baked winter squash, I’ve been trying different varieties.
In my earlier Squash-Offs I’ve tried acorn, carnival, delicata, and butternut. First delicata won, then butternut.
Not tonight. I’d read about buttercup and decided it would probably be up my alley (dry, creamy flesh, sweet), and got one at Wegmans last week. Didn’t get around to baking it until tonight, against acorn and butternut. Omigosh, there’s no comparison. Buttercup, hands-down.
Kudos to whomever bred such a lovely thing*. And I don’t care if the seeds are hard to separate. I can buy other squashes just for their seeds, if necessary!
MMMMMMM.
P.S. Nothing that tastes this good should be only ONE POINT for a cup of it**.
* After some hunting around, I have discovered I have AF Yeager and E. Latzke, North Dakota plant breeders to thank:
Yeager, A.F. and E. Latzke. Buttercup Squash: Its Origin and Use. Fargo, ND: Agricultural Experiment Station, North Dakota Agricultural College, 1932. Bulletin/North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station no. 258. 19 p. NAL 100 N813 no.258
In 1922 North Dakota researchers Yeager and Latzke undertook a squash breeding program that was initially focused on the Hubbard squash. Their aim was to develop a desirable variety that would take the place of the sweet potato, which had proved unsatisfactory in variety testing in the region. This report, issued ten years hence, describes the origin of the Buttercup variety, a small turban-shaped squash selected from an accidental cross of Quality and Essex Hybrid, and also considers growing methods and the variety’s cooking and food qualities. A good portion of the bulletin consists of general instructions for cooking and several dozen recipes (p. 13-19). With black-and-white photos, and bibliography (sources cited in footnotes).
** Turns out the SEEDS are where all the fat and calories are. 5 points for 1/4 cup! I guess kittens know this too, because they beg for them (well, at least the orange one does). Yikes. I better put those Away.
Manifolds 