My favorite vintage era home cooks didn’t care about
the history of those hard skinned winter squash! There are very few recipes found in my
collection of cookbooks from those times … other than the simple squash split,
quartered or cut into rings … and baked with a little cinnamon and brown
sugar. I suspect that the difficulty in
cutting winter squash made them far less popular than their summertime counterparts.
In 1976 (I know this because that is the year I got
married!) a women’s magazine featured a stuffed squash on its cover. My new husband proclaimed that he loved acorn
squash and he wanted me to make this recipe.
Of course, I did. I cannot possibly
count the number of times I have made it since!
It is a favorite. I’ll share that
recipe with this post.
There may have been a half million home cooks who made
that featured recipe that year, but it didn’t make acorn squash any more
popular! Ten years later, the Chicago
Tribune featured an article that began to popularize this delicious
vegetable. The vegetarian and healthy
eating movements that followed strengthened its growing popularity. By the time the overly popular trend of
roasting vegetables came around, the buy local produce from farmers trend
easily provided consumers lots of winter squash … including the Acorn! Now, many of us enjoy winter squash in our
year-round diets. Butternut and Acorn
squash cubes can be found already prepared in the produce section of the
supermarket. Butternut cubes are now
sold frozen, and we have no excuses about preparing it.
I’m going to stick to Acorn Squash recipes today but
let me tell you than while a Butternut can be peeled in the raw state … an
Acorn is much more difficult. When you
want to use Acorn Squash it is easier to bake it whole, then remove the
flesh. All you have to do is cut the
squash in half; remove the seeds; place it skin side up in a baking dish with
an inch of water in it; and bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Check it a couple times to see if it has
softened.
If you want to start with raw cubes of Acorn Squash,
the easiest way to peel it is to cut it in rings, then peel each ring. Because of the ridges down the side of the
squash, it is difficult to peel, otherwise.
For my delicious Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash … you
want to use the baking method.
Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash
This recipe is enough for 4 small to medium sized
squash. Remove the stem top of each
squash. Remove the seeds and stringy
membrane from each squash. Place the
squash skin side up in a baking dish with 1 inch of water in it. Lay the ‘lids’ (tops you cut off) in the water,
too. Bake at 350 degrees for
approximately 30 minutes. The squash
will have softened. Remove the dish from
the oven; check to see if the squash is done; turn the squash right side up and
let them cool on a wire rack or on a towel on the counter top. When the squash is cool, you will use a spoon
and remove the flesh to a mixing bowl.
For the stuffing, fry 1 pound of crumbled breakfast
sausage. When the sausage cools, add it
to the squash. Add the following:
2
Tablespoons of dried minced onion
¼
cup of brown sugar
½
teaspoon of powdered sage or poultry seasoning
Salt
and pepper
1
large egg
2
slices of bread, crumbled
½
cup of shredded cheddar cheese
Mix all these ingredients together and stuff the
squash. Return to the oven and bake for
30 – 40 minutes, until the stuffing is firm.
You can add a little more shredded cheese to the top of each one …
replace the lids and serve.
Yes, these take awhile to prepare but they are
impressive and delicious!
I’m sharing this article as part of my 2020 Vintage
Vegetable project. If you’d like to see
similar articles, just click through the menu tab. I’ll also be sharing with a couple blog
parties, so check the list on my sidebar.
Stay safe and enjoy!
