Topic: Winter Squash taste tests

[realfood]

Last year there seemed to be general agreement that among the best tasting, easy to grow varieties of Winter Squashes were Bon Bon, Crown Prince and Uchiki Kuri.
This year for the first time I grew Invincible, which is claimed to be an improved Crown Prince type, in the same bed as my other Winter Squashes. Invincible has proved to be such a disappointment!! It has a similar shape, lighter colour but does not seem to be so robust as Crown Prince. One invincible had to be eaten early, and I thought that it was poor tasting and lacking sweetness compared with Crown prince.
Has anyone else grown Invincible and what did you think of the taste?

[1066]

I saw it advertised and wondered what it was like. So no I haven't tried it, but interested to hear your experience

1066  :)

[Morris]

Thank you for this - it's always interesting and useful to get veg reviews, one of the reasons I love this site and how i found it! I won't bother with Invincible then!

Did anyone try Squashkin?  (Marshalls) Also supposed to be a Crown Prince hybrid - with a butternut - claimed to be the best of both types? 

Also on squash, I like and have been successful with pink banana (still have a lot in the freezer from last summer!). Real Seeds reckon their blue banana is much better - any views out there?  I have had mixed experience with their seeds.

Hope I am not hijacking this thread but the title is quite general! 

[shirlton]

We grew invincible but only had one fruit on each of the 3 plants.We are yet to try it so will let you know the result

[Morris]

It will have to be a very good tasting squash at that rate of productivity unless they are huge?

[chriscross1966]

I'm still eating Festivals from last year and they're very nice... possibly not as sweet as a well kept butternut, but a heck of a lot easier to grow, and if nothing else I've proven than they'll store well in non-optimum conditions.... they spent the winter in my folks garage adn since March they've been in my kitchen, on a shelf, next to the boiler...

I've got high hopes for Potimarron though, this year it's given me some sensibly sized squash and the mini pumpkin hooligan has too... if they turn out to be nice then I'll grow them again... uchi Kuri is a bit big for anythign I have a use for , Boston Winter is bigger than my head, the Galeux D'Eysines are too big, as are the Crown Prince, the Anna Schwartz Hubbards, the Muscade, the Cha-Cha and the Tondo di Padana (when it did come true. Burgess Buttercup and BOn-BOn both produced small fruit this year but I know Bon-Bon will get bigger than that, though I welcome having a small buttercup to hand for cooking.... I'll ge to see my final tally at the weekend, all the stuff is coming off the plot on Saturday...

chrisc

[froglets]

Hi,

well we liked Invincible enough last year to grow it again this year, but for my money it's not as good as Burgess buttercup ( real seeds).  The down side for me is that there are usually only two fruits per plant and they just get too big.  Once we start one it's hanging around for ages and ages.....

I've grown uchiki Kuri for the first year based on what folks here have said, but not eaten any yet.

I will definitely be growing more burgess Buttercup though - my fave.

[PAULW]

Grew pink banana this year I thought it was tasteless you must have to smother it in spices to get any result.

[Morris]

Re pink banana: I find it improves dramatically in flavour after storing for a couple of months, then I really like it.  Best for soup, as when pureed the fibres break down to a lovely velvety texture.  Not so good for chunks/roasting.

[PAULW]

Thanks Morris I will try that I have a sixteen pounder sitting in the shed at the moment.

[realfood]

I grew Squashkin last year, and it was as sweet as a Butternut but much easier to get to fruit in the North, with a lot of usable flesh.

[Morris]

Thanks Realfood I think I might try Squashkin next summer, even in Hampshire it can be a gamble getting enough ripe by autumn.

PaulW - they grow huge, don't they?  My best tasting of the 3 last year was the one I left longest, until April - it was very sweet and tasty.  That's the one that still has flesh in the freezer!

[sawfish]

The best I've eaten was Crown Prince. Blue hubbard was pretty good too.

[Jeannine]

My opinion is that frankly it is too early to test types of winter squash for taste so soon,, the sugars will increase dramatically over the next couple of months,right now they are really not matured enough.

My favourites still are the blues and the delicatas.

XX Jeannine

[realfood]

Today, I tried Blue Kuri and Rolet. Blue Kuri was sweet and had a fudge-like consistency of flesh. Rolet was only slightly sweet with a stringy flesh.
Rolet was the most prolific of my Winter Squash, with an incredibly hard skin.

[ruud]

Made today with my daughter a great tasting pumpkinsoup made from a blue hubbard,it was heavenly.Great taste,fine structure.My daughter is learning for cook and her teacher was also enthousiastic about the blue hubbard.

[earlypea]

Rolet was only slightly sweet with a stringy flesh.

I was googling Rolet a while back and it said it was better to eat them fresh, less stringy apparantly.  It seems to pan out.  The first one I ate back in August was delightfully nutty with some acceptable stringiness and saved ones have been disappointingly bland and nothing but string.

So far I have had to eat two Queensland Blue's because of mouldy stems:  it's the finest smoothest tastiest squash I ever ate.  (But I haven't eaten many, this is my first year of growing winter squashes  ;) )  But really, no comparison to supermarket ones I've tried in years before, a league apart.  Can't wait to eat the best, really ripe one - but must, must wait!

So far also sampled a Kamo Kamo which has disappointed too, but some set when it was hot and some just had a very dull, wet summer - don't know which camp the one I ate came from.  I've got a roomful of those so hoping some are nicer or they improve in storage.

[Vinlander]

Re pink banana: I find it improves dramatically in flavour after storing for a couple of months, then I really like it.  Best for soup, as when pureed the fibres break down to a lovely velvety texture.  Not so good for chunks/roasting.

I took Real Seeds' advice on banana squash and bought their Blue Banana - mainly because I've been looking for a plant that gives me lots of immature squashes because I prefer them to courgettes - denser flesh, stronger nutty flavour.

In this they worked well - even though only 25% of the plants came out with blue fruits - the rest of the plants produced green and obviously not the true strain.

In Sep I picked the last squash - the only one I'd let get a bit big, and started chopping it to bulk out a stew - but I always try new varieties raw in case they work as well as grated pumpkin in coleslaw.

I was very surprised to find it was the best raw squash I've ever tasted - so good that it competed with my apples for after-dinner nibbles!

I've kept its seed but the bad news is that it was one of the green ones so I won't know if Blue Banana is as good until next year!

Cheers.

[earlypea]

That's interesting Vinlander.

Since the summer crookneck is botanically a winter squash and so much tastier for me than a courgette I do similar if I've got enough squashes.

Queensland Blue as a rather large soft courgette was also very tasty and orange fleshed early, but it would never be productive enough for courgette style picking.  Kamo Kamo was disappointingly bland in it's early state.  Must sample more varieties next year....

[galina]

 Must sample more varieties next year....

Ooooo you're on a slippery slope here, there are so many  ;D ;D ;D  Enjoy  ;)