Acorn squash

Fill the cavity, roast cut side up, baste twice. That is the dish.

This squash is short on sugar of its own; the crust supplies it.

Fenugreek-ish sotolon in the syrup gives the flesh a savoury turn.

Resin against a squash whose own aroma is barely there.

Smoke and salt fill the fibrous flesh where the flavour is missing.

Both taste faintly of wood; the nut adds fat and crack.

Stuff the cavity: nutty grain, edible bowl, no plate needed.

Sharp berry cuts through fibre that otherwise reads as stodge.

Smoked heat treats it as a chilli vessel, not a dessert.

Barrel vanillin and roast squash meet in the same caramel register.