Print This PageSeminis Breeder Offers Cooking Tips
Bill
Johnson, a squash breeder for Seminis, likes to fancy himself a squash chef. He
should – his job is to look at squash all day and select for qualities that make
them good to eat.
Seminis breeds 10 different varieties of winter squash, selecting qualities to make a tastier squash with a longer shelf life. "In breeding squash," Johnson said, "I'm looking for high sugar content in the fruit. A lot of the flavor is associated with the sugar content." He also notes that the higher the sugar content, the longer the shelf life of the squash because it has more energy to last through the season.
The name squash is believed to have come from the Algonquin (North American Indian people) term "askoot asquash," meaning eaten green. Squash can be baked, pureed, steamed, mashed or fried. Squash's versatility makes it renowned in culinary circles. In recipes that call for canned pumpkin, cooks can easily substitute mashed squash. Incidentally, most canned pumpkin (including that in your pumpkin pie) is actually a closer relative to butternut squash.
Despite their versatility, some squash are better for certain dishes than others. Johnson recommends acorns and butternuts for baking because they have a nice flesh consistency; after baking the flesh is easy to scoop.
For soups,
though, choose a butternut over an acorn. "Butternuts are better than acorns in
soups for practical reasons," Johnson explained. "Butternut squash are less fibrous
than acorn squash, making it easier to achieve a smooth consistency." Butternuts
are also easier to process and handle, with fewer ridges and crannies and have a
higher concentration of carotenoids, the precursor to vitamin A. On the other hand,
acorns and delicatas are great for stuffing, mainly because of the shape left when
the seeds are removed, the breeder said. Delicatas are a tasty winter squash that
are characterized by green striping over a white background.
Johnson also has suggestions when it comes to picking out a squash. "As a consumer," he said, "you want to look for fruit that has had a chance to mature completely on the plant." Squash that are harvested before they reach maturity haven't had a chance to fully develop their flavor and will probably have a shorter shelf life. "So what you're looking for," Johnson said, "is as hard a shell as possible. If you can put your thumbnail through the fruit, it's not ready." Also look for squash with as few blemishes as possible, as cracks and blemishes decrease storage life.
