ideas for under-ripe winter squash

i don’t mean like summer-squash level of soft by under-ripe. i mean a winter squash that’s reached its eventual size and has at least partly hardened on the outside but then somehow gets dislodged from the plant before it can ripen completely. what’s a worthwhile use in the kitchen? i can always feed them to the chickens, but i’d like to make more direct use of them. i’m assuming the flavor and sugar content will be significantly less than at ripe, but the flavor in general is probably not bad.

this question brought to you by the aftermath of, i think, a neighbor’s dog.

It would probably serve just fine diced in a soup or stew,  or even broiled/grilled.  I would expect it to be more watery and less starchy and less sweet than fully mature squash, so probably would not work well in purees.

If you'd rather not eat them immediately, let the squash continue to ripen off the vine. I put away quite a few under-ripened winter squash last year. They ripened off the vine in waxed produce box, placed on a cement floor at about 55 degrees F, each squash wrapped in newsprint or a brown paper bag.

if they didn’t have so many tooth-marks in them….

Oven roasted under ripe squash often tastes better and less watery and is good for making soup. Spices like cumin, coriander, turmeric, a little chili, lots of garlic and ginger will reduce any blandness.

In Mexico it's often added to soups or stews. Mostly if a veg is needed and that's the stage to squash is at...

In my very short growing season, we take winter squash off the plant as soon the colour and texture indicate maturity. The plant then puts its energy into other, less developed squash. They almost always cure and keep well.

I wonder if it could be treated like a chayote/mirliton, harder flesh than most summer squash, but less flavorful than winter squash. It takes on the flavor of stuffing well, or else whatever it's simmered in while holding it's shape better than the pulpier summer varieties.

They can be dehydrated then pulverized into powder for adding to soups & stews. I usually just cook them, add some spice, & eat them. Pumpkins are especially good when harvested about baseball sized.

Yep, when frost threatens I just take them all in, store the ones that seem mature and eat the immature ones. They're fine. Sweeter and harder than a normal summer squash, but nowhere near as sweet and hard as a winter squash. I'm growing Lofthouse maximas and the immature ones are bright yellow-orange inside, very attractive.

Somewhere around here I have a book that talks about traditional drying methods for squash.  They specifically mention that zucchini (which can be matured into a winter squash) is best for drying after the summer squash stage, but before full maturity. They were using the basic drying method of hanging slices with string.  

We made some trail food for my mother when she hiked the John Muir trail while following a keto diet. Meal quantities of zucchini noodles piled up and dehydrated made flat disks that were easily stacked together. You would pull out a stack at a time and treat it like a pack of Ramen noodles.  

Casie Becker wrote:Meal quantities of zucchini noodles piled up and dehydrated made flat disks that were easily stacked together. You would pull out a stack at a time and treat it like a pack of Ramen noodles.  

This is a great idea!

It's typical of my mother.  She's always reading and experimenting with new things.  She's now got such a broad knowledge base that she's constantly coming up with ingenious little gadgets. It's about equal odds that she just learned about it or she came up with it herself.