SQUASH

Garrett, Theodore Francis (edited by). 1898. the Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C. London. Vol. iv

is a fancy name given to a class of American drinks. The name mostly adopted for the same drink is smash.

Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Words. Oxford University Press.

is an edible fruit of the gourd family, the flesh of which is cooked and eaten as a vegetable. -
ORIGIN abbreviation of Narragansett asquutasquash.

Excerpts from Hawkes, Alex D. 1968. A World of Vegetable Cookery. Simon and Schuster, New York.

The common nomenclature of the numerous kinds of vegetables known as Squash is almost hilariously confused. These plants are all cucurbits, and virtually all of those in general cultivation bear names that vary markedly from region to region. Some of them, of the improtant genus Cucurbita, are taken up below.

The Summer Squashes are mostly variants of the botanical species Cucurbita Pepo, an exceedingly deiverse entity whose origins are probably in the Himalayan mountains-like most of these plants, it has been cultivated for such an incredibly long time that its home is unknown. Here we find the Summer Crooknecks (yellow, white, and green), Pattypan (Cymling), butternut, Scallop, and the distinctive ornamental gourds.

The Winter Squashes are referred to either Cucurbita maxima or C. moschata by the botanists. The former is presumably an American indigene, since certain forms of it were found growing with corn in Indian fields when Columbus arrived on our shores. The second species probably originated in the Asiatic tropics, but here again its precise original home in today unknown.

In this admittedly vague category we include the hard-skinned squashes such as Banana, Acorn (Danish), Hubbard, Turban, Mammoth, Cushaw, Canada Crookneck, and Winter Crookneck. These are often encountered under distinctive regional vernaculars that vary in differing parts of the world.

Squash is harvested in considerable sizes, shapes and quality due to both growing conditions and cultivars. Squash may be soft-shellimmate fruit (zucchini, crookneck) with the shell, flesh, and seeds being soft and edible. Hard shell squash varieties (acorn) have shells and seeds which are hard and not edible. Squash should be purchased with clean and unblemished and broken shells or skins.

This squash has a hard, rugged, orange-yellow outer shell. When cooked the squash has a nutty flavor.

**Squash Types**
Acorn	These squash generally have wide ribs and a dark green outer skin. The flesh is a pale yellow. Frequently it is stuffed when cooked.
Australian Blue
Banana
Buttercup
Butternut
Calabaza	This is a large squash. When cooked it has a creamy texture.,
Chayote
Cucuzza
Delicata
Golden Nugget
Hubbard	This squash has a drak green to blue gray hard, rough outer skin. It is a large sqash.
Kabocha
Mini Pumpkin
Red Kuri
Spaghetti
Sugar Loaf
Sweet Dumpling
Table Queen
Turban

Garrett, Theodore Francis (edited by). 1898. the Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C. London. Vol. iv

in American is the fruit of certain plants of the gourd tribe (Cucurbita) are known by this name. They are of various kinds, usually distinguished as Winter and Summer squashes, and these again being made up of nume3rous varieties, such as the crook-neck squash, hulbard squash, barbary or China squash, cymlings, and some others of which the distinctions are not clear. The word itself is taken from the Indian asq, plural asquash.

Berzok, Linda Murray. 2005. American Indian Food. Food in American History. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.

SQUASH: Derived from the New England Native American word askutasquash, this vegetable included summer varieties like scalloped, yellow straightneck, yellow crookneck and zucchini and fall/winter ones such as acorn and pumpkin. The Hopi were particularly fond of cushaw, a shfot-shelled squash, one of the oldest varieties. The flesh, seeds, flowers and leaves of squash were all consumed. Often, the vegetable was baked or roasted whole in the fire, or cut into pieces for boiling. Squash was a familiar ingredient of eschoinque, a soup including shredded meat or fish, thickened with dried corn meal. In some tribes, squash gained ceremonial importance as the focus of feasts held in response to dreams. John Heckewelder, a Moravian missionary from England, observed of the Mohican of New York State and the Delaware of Delaware, "They are very particular in their choice of pumpkins and squashes, and in their manner of cooking them. The women say the less water is put to them, the better dish they make,, and that it would be still better if they were stewed without any water, merely in the steam of the sap which they contain."

Domesticated independently in Mexico and the eastern United States-in the Southeast possibly as early as 4500 BC-squash were prepared for winter storage by removing their seeds, cutting them into strips and then air-drying on large basket trays. Colonist Peter Kalm wrote in 1749, "the Indians, in order to preserve the pumpkins for a very long time, cut them in long slices which they fasten or twist together and dry either in the sun or by the fire in a room. When they are thus dried, they will keep for years, and when boiled they taste very well. The Indians prepare them thus at home and on their journeys."

Although early Europeans did not generally wax enthusiastic about NAtive foods, one Frenh traveler among the iroquois wrote in 1636 that "the squashes last sometimes four and five months, and are so abundant that they are to be had almost for nothing, and so good that, on being cooked in the ashes, they are eaten as apples are in France."

Niethammer, Carolyn. 1974. American Indian Food and Lore. Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc., New York.

southwestern indians raised a variety of squashes of botht he summer and winter types. Evidence implies that some kinds were being grown before contact with the white man while other kinds were adopted after the arrival of the spaniards. Squashes were eaten from their first appearance when they were tiny and green all through their development until maturity. Squash was prepared for winter storage by removing the seeds and cutting it into strips, which were sun-dried. The seeds were also sun-dried and used.

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