Slow-cooker Butternut Squash

[Italiancook]

Okay, I could wait 8 hours to learn the answer, but I'm curious now. My husband bought a 2-1/2 lb. butternut squash for me to prep in the slow-cooker. The problem is that it wouldn't fit on the bottom of the pot. I have it suspended in the middle. A short stem and the end of the squash are holding it in place.

I don't know anything about how crock-pots work. Will a suspended squash cook? Or, does the food have to touch the bottom to have heat move through the molecules and cook the squash?

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[Mike Nolan]

That's an interesting question.

Air is a less efficient means for thermal transfer than contact with a hot metal, glass or ceramic surface, but I would assume a squash is also not very efficient at thermal transfer.

An oven works because the air circulates, transferring the heat from the heating element to the air to your food. Convection ovens work faster because the air is moving more, so the rate of transfer is faster. (There's also radiated energy in an oven, but let's not complicate things here.)

I wouldn't think a slow cooker would have a lot of thermal currents in it, but it should have some if only due to Brownian motion.

My guess is it'll work, but it might slow down the rate at which the squash cooks, meaning it'll take longer.

Let us know how it turns out.

Did you consider the possibility of peeling it and cutting it in cubes?

[Italiancook]

Your answer is also interesting, Mike.

Here's what I know so far: Sometime during the cooking time, the squash became softer and shrunk to fit the bottom of the crockpot. As it slid down, the stem scratched my cooker. It looks to me like it's a permanent scratch, although I didn't take the lid off to examine closer. I'll report how long this actually took to cook. The article's reported cooking time was 8 hours. I'll test it with a table knife after 8 hours and see where I am.

For anyone else wanting to try this, I don't think it'd work in a round crockpot. Mine is oval, and I think an oval pot would be needed to accommodate the shape of the squash.

Mike, I didn't think about peeling and cubing. I was trying out a (I think) blog post about slow cooking it for 8 hours, then cutting, seeding & mashing. It was an experiment for me, and your post alerted me to the fact that it may need to cook longer, since it started out suspended in the pot. Thanks.

[Italiancook]

I checked the Oct. 1 cooking posts and find that cwcdesign posted the link for a blog about cooking butternut squash in the slow-cooker.

I'm here to spread the word that this really does work. After 8 hours, the squash was done. Like all slow cookery, what's wonderful is that I was out and about while it cooked. I let the finished squash cool for 15 minutes, then cut and seeded it. I easily scraped out the flesh & added it to a bowl with some butter. I added grated nutmeg, mashed, decided to add a little salt, and I'm pleased with the finished product. So much easier than peeling and cutting a raw squash. (If I were making this only for myself, I would not have added salt. Since it's for a lunch guest, I decided to add a smidgen of salt.)

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Italiancook.

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