Winter Squash -- Tips

1. ORANGE HOKKAIDO	2. BUTTERCUP	3. SUGAR PUMPKIN	4. HUBBARD	5. DELICATA	6. CARNIVAL	7. KABOCHA
Super-squash-tasters detect notes of chestnut in this teardrop-shaped Hubbard relative, which resembles a ridgeless pumpkin and also goes by the name red kuri.	Essentially a sweet potato trapped in the body of a winter squash, with a fine-grained, bright-orange flesh and an exceptionally sweet flavor. Halve it, bake it, add butter, and you may never look at another squash again.	Save those giant field specimens for the front porch or the state fair; this is the pumpkin you want for pumpkin pie.	Get out the wheelbarrow—this toothsome behemoth can weigh over twenty pounds, but proves that in the world of winter squash, bigger is sometimes better.	Among the tastiest of all winter squash, with sweet and starchy, non-stringy flesh. It's great steamed or roasted, even better sliced into rings and deep-fried the way Dan Kluger has done at ABC Kitchen.	Like Acorn, a good single-serving-size squash with dense texture and pleasingly sweet meat.	If you've had tempura, you've likely had Kabocha, a word which generically means "squash" in Japanese, but specifically refers to a Buttercup-like variety that's rich, sweet, and densely textured.
8. ROUGE VIF D'ETAMPES	9. TURK'S TURBAN	10. ACORN	11. CHEESE PUMPKIN	12. SWEET LIGHTNING	13. BUTTERNUT
The model for Cinderella's coach, they say, and an heirloom variety long loved by the French more for its chic style than its stringy substance.	A close relative of the Buttercup, but not as sweet or tasty. It makes a fine centerpiece, though, or a first-rate paperweight, provided you have a gigantic desk.	Size-wise, it's the anti-Hubbard. The deep-green-black variety pictured is called Table Queen, and it lives up to its name in its dominance over the domestic squash market.	A real looker but a poor performer in the taste and texture department, this tropical variety's named for its resemblance to a wheel of fromage.	Not just a pretty face, these Delicata cousins are high in sugar and have smooth, creamy flesh. Poke some holes in one and toss it into the office microwave for lunch.	There is little you can't do with this multipurpose squash: Bake it, simmer it, steam it, or make soup. Beneath the distinctive bell-shaped, beige-hued shell, the deeper orange the color, the sweeter the flesh.

[NYMag]