Ingredients

4 to 5 pounds Yellow Crookneck or Straightneck Squash // 2 to 3 large Sweet Onions diced // 1 teaspoon Kosher or Sea Salt // Good quality Dairy Evaporated Milk (no milk substitutions)

Double this recipe if needing to feed several people at a family gathering.

In a large stockpot, dissolve salt in a little water. Scrub all the squash to remove sand, cut off hard ends. Dice all of it into one half inch cubes. Add the diced onions, fill with water to just cover the diced squash and onions, then stir to combine the onions and squash. Bring to a boil, let it boil 5 minutes, then reduce to a simmer.

When the squash and onions are tender, drain in a colander. Gently mash a plate over the top of it to force water out. Then place the colander of squash over the empty stockpot. Leave a plate on top of the squash and onions, and weight that with something heavy so the rest of the water will be pressed out. This will take about 30 to 45 minutes. Cover with a tea towel while it drains.

It is absolutely essential to bake this in a well seasoned, large chicken fryer cast iron skillet or cast iron casserole or cast iron roaster.

Glass, metal or other bakewear will not evaporate the moisture from the squash properly for this to brown and condense into a squash butter. This requires the porous surface of cast iron to evaporate correctly. I've tried multiple types of bakewear over the past 40 years, and only cast iron delivers tawny, toasty, nutty, rich squash butter paste every time without fail.

Heat the oven to 325°f.

Grease the cast iron bakewear with only butter. Don't use bacon grease. Butter is necessary for the nutty, toasty flavor. Without it, this will not develop the nutty flavors, and will be somewhat bland. Margarine won't substitute either, as it doesn't cook like butter does.

Hand squeeze (but not excessively), more water from the squash mixture and place in a bowl. It's tedious, but a needed step to ensure the squash butter condenses properly, and doesn't just steam in the oven.

Once all the squash mixture has been hand squeezed and in the bowl, add about 8 to 10 tablespoons quality evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed), and mix thoroughly. I use a flat potato masher often to do this. Taste for salt, add a little more if it needs it. Mix again.

As with the butter, the evaporated milk is fully essential to develop the nutty, slightly sweet flavor. Nut or oat milk, whole milk or fat free/skim milk/2% milk will not work. Make sure it is undiluted evaporated dairy milk, the full fat type if possible.

Once very well mixed, transfer all of it to the seasoned cast iron skillet, roaster or casserole. Remember, the bakeware must be cast iron, or this will not condense and evaporate properly.

Pat down and smooth the unbaked squash mixture, and place 6 to 10 pats of butter over the top, then place uncovered in oven.

After about 20 minutes, if the squash is tawny colored, (like the color of the pet above), remove from oven and thoroughly stir so that all is well mixed. (spoon or potato masher). Mix by turning all the mixture over and blending very thoroughly. You may notice that the mixture has shrunk a bit. It will have much less volume by the time it has been baked fully.

Smooth the squash mixture out flat in the skillet again, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more. Remove and stir thoroughly again, do mash any lumps out. It should be a little more nut-brown in color.

The mixture must be baked then very well stirred, and rebaked a total of five times. The final time remove from the oven, and let it cool slightly. The squash butter should be a nutty, tawny-brown color, and a creamy, paste like consistency. Let it rest in the iron skillet, as the hot and porous iron will evaporate some more moisture.

Place squash butter in a serving bowl, and serve warm. It will be greatly reduced in volume from when it began, and a creamy, spreadable paste. The squash flavor will have incresed in richness and concentration.

The point is to evaporate as much water as possible from the squash, thereby creating a nutty, slightly sweet rich flavor of squash. It's nothing in the least like boiled, fried or simmered squash. This is a condensed squash butter, and a creamy paste when cooked correctly. If not a smooth paste on the last bake, then stir until it is. The trick is to stir very well each time it's taken from the oven, thus further breaking up the squash pulp each time it's mixed and rebaked. Don't use food processors or blenders.

The first time I ever had this, it blew my mind; I never knew yellow squash could taste so amazing! I've been making this since the 1980's. The recipe and cooking method dates back to somewhere in the 1800's.

My poor Dad.. one holiday dinner, I'd made this as a sidedish treat. I began with about four pounds of raw squash, and ended up with maybe 2 1/2 cups of squash butter. I'd used the largest stockpot we had to simmer it.

Everyone at the table had a serving of it. I noticed that my Dad was enthusiastically eating away.. well I did too the first time I had it! In the meantime I'd learned to go slow and savor every precious bite.

Dad had the cutest expression, and wistfully asked for seconds. I had to disappoint him and tell him there wasn't any more. He nearly pouted, lol. At that time, he didn't know how much time and work went into making it, but he learned. :) I made more at some point. I think he fell in love with the stuff.

This can be baked and frozen for future meals. It's a great way to use a pile of yellow squash and onions if your garden has left you with an over abundance.

Important Notes: 100% best results only happened with full fat dairy evaporated milk. No substitute will work in this recipe. Evap milk adds creaminess, rich flavor, and helps it become golden toasty.

Dairy butter is essential. Do not substitute margarine or some other thing. Butter adds the toasty, nutty flavor, as well as some creaminess. Dairy butter is only made from cream (and/or salt). Butter helps the toasty brown color develop and gives that flavor that only lightly browned butter can deliver.

Well seasoned and butter greased iron cookware, preferably a large iron skillet, is the only bakeware that will correctly condense and evaporate the moisture. Seasoned ironware delivers a wonderful flavor to this. No other bakeware will turn the squash butter tawny golden with that slightly sweet, nutty, rich squash flavor or texture.

The onions add a lovely carmelized onion sweetness that cannot be reproduced in any other way. The sweeter the onion, the better this dish will taste. Please don't substitute onion flakes or powder in place of freshly diced sweet onion. We used what we had, but the Texas 10-15's, Noonday, Vidalia or Crimini onions worked best.

Once this is baked the final time, taste for salt, add more if needed. Some folks like their foods less salty, and others tend to like it much saltier.