Gryphon's Aeire Food Fact - Squash

 From the Chicago Tribune

Squash can be real softies
By Linda Giuca. Special to the Tribune. Linda Giuca is a staff reporter for
the Hartford Courant, a Tribune newspaper

November 18, 2001

They're a pain to peel, but beneath that tough exterior lies a softie of a
vegetable--when cooked, that is.

Now thin-skinned zucchini and yellow summer squash have been pushed aside by
the hardier winter squash. Even their colors--pumpkin orange, deep green,
tan and creamy yellow--mirror the changing shades of the leaves.

Shoppers remain loyal to familiar varieties, but winter squashes in many
shapes, sizes and colors wait to be sampled. The variety makes it easy to
substitute among them. Market containers are overflowing with specimens: the
familiar dark-green acorn, a bright orange acorn, green- and cream-striped
carnival, blue-green Hubbard and Queensland blue.

Blue Hubbard, a variety that can be blue-green, dark green or even orange,
was a staple in 17th Century America, says Rick Macsuga, lead marketing
representative for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture.

"They can be huge--40 to 60 pounds," he says. "During Colonial times, they
fed a whole family. Today, people buy them like pumpkins to put in the front
yard."

Although these hard-skinned squashes are a fall crop, they are planted in
early summer. Growing in leafy plants like zucchini, winter squash starts
out with a tender skin that grows thicker as the season progresses.

Edible gourds need the cool temperatures of late summer and early fall to
bring out their sweetness. "Winter squash will not fully ripen unless
nighttime temperatures have dropped, for sugars don't accumulate until night
temperatures go down into the 50s," Marian Morash wrote in "The Victory
Garden Cookbook."

The tougher skin is an advantage when storing squash. Winter squash will
keep well into the winter if stored properly. Try a cool, dry place (a
garage or porch will do) and keep the squash off the ground or floor. Morash
suggested 55 to 60 degrees as the optimum temperature, but the squash will
withstand lower temperatures as long as they are above 32 degrees.

Winter squash can be steamed or boiled, but if using those methods, peel the
squash and cut into cubes.

A far simpler method, which brings out the sweetness of squash far more than
steaming, is baking: Line a roasting pan with enough foil to enclose the
squash. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and put cut-side down on
the foil. Add a few tablespoons of water, if desired, then tightly close the
foil and bake at 350 degrees until the squash can be pierced easily with a
fork, 35 to 45 minutes.

Getting to know the varieties of winter squash

Some are old, some are new, but the following varieties all are part of the
winter squash family.

- Acorn takes its name from its shape. Its skin is usually a dark green,
sometimes splashed with bright orange. Its yellow to burnt-orange flesh is
thick yet sweet. There also is a variety whose skin is pumpkin-colored. Its
pulp is slightly milder than the green acorn. Most acorns are a size that,
when halved, makes a perfect two servings, either mashed and seasoned, or
stuffed and baked.

- Buttercup has forest-green skin and a sturdy, almost squarish body. Its
pulp is a golden orange. This squash retains a meaty, firm consistency when
cooked--like a sweet potato. The flavor is sweet but strong.

- Butternut has the most nondescript skin color of the squash varieties, but
its sweet, fine-textured pulp is a bright orange. Gourd-shaped, butternut is
ball-shaped at one end, tapering to a long, thick neck.

- Carnival and sweet dumpling are distinctively striped winter squashes.
Small and round with pronounced ridges, sweet dumpling is often a creamy
white with green stripes, while carnival is predominantly green with slashes
of orange. The flesh is a golden yellow and, when cooked, has the smooth,
moist consistency of acorn squash. The flavor is more delicate than
buttercup.

- Delicata, an elongated squash with a green-and-white-striped skin, is the
hot new variety. When cooked, the flesh is soft but not mushy, and its
flavor is sweeter than acorn.

- Hubbard is notable more for its size (small to huge, just like pumpkins)
than for its flavor. The Hubbard has a bumpy rind and may look misshapen.
Skin colors range from a pretty gray-blue to orange to dark green. This
squash cooks to a soft, almost mushy pulp and has a bland flavor.

- Queensland blue, a variety developed in Australia, has the blue-green
color of a hubbard but the ridged shape of a boxy pumpkin.

- Spaghetti squash is a yellow, hard-skinned squash, but its interior
differs markedly from other varieties. Although acorn, butternut and the
like cook to a smooth texture, the interior of cooked spaghetti squash can
be separated into strands with a fork. It's a lower-calorie alternative to
pasta.

-- Linda Giuca


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