Squash - Koginut - Bred by Chefs for Chefs - Butterscotch - Sweet Flavor -15lbs

Koginut is a modern variety — bred by Row 7 Seed Company in collaboration with chef Dan Barber and plant breeder Michael Mazourek, and released only a few years ago as a deliberate cross between kabocha and butternut. It wasn't developed for shelf life, shipping durability, or yield. It was bred for one thing: flavor. That makes it a rare case of a vegetable engineered from the kitchen backward, rather than the field forward.

The cross shows in the eating. Koginut carries the deep, roasted-nut sweetness and dry, dense texture of kabocha, layered with the smooth, buttery richness of butternut. The result is intensely sweet and concentrated — squash flavor turned up, without needing much help from the kitchen to get there.

Visually, it's distinctive: acorn-shaped, ribbed, with mottled tan-and-green skin that darkens as it matures — it doesn't look like a standard squash, and it doesn't need to be dressed up to read as special on a plate. The skin is thin enough to cook and serve on for most preparations, though slightly tougher than Delicata's.

 

For the Kitchen

• Roast halved or in wedges, skin-on, until deeply caramelized

• Purée for a soup or side that needs concentrated sweetness without added sugar

• Roast and finish simply — brown butter, sage, or a touch of maple echoes the kabocha side

• Slice into wedges or rounds for a striking, ready-to-plate roasted vegetable course

• Stuff halves as a composed course — the shape holds fillings well

• Use anywhere you'd reach for kabocha or butternut but want more depth in less volume

Koginut is a good story for a menu that wants to talk about where food comes from — not a centuries-old heirloom, but proof that thoughtful breeding, done in service of flavor rather than logistics, can still produce something worth building a dish around.

 

A Simple Method — Roasted & Puréed

Row 7, the seed company behind Koginut, offers a straightforward starting technique worth passing along:

Knock the stem off each squash with the blunt end of a chef's knife, halve top to bottom, and scoop the seeds. Season the cut sides with salt and oil, then roast cut-side down at 400°F for about 35 minutes. Flip, brush with more oil, and continue roasting until deeply caramelized — another 15–20 minutes.

For a purée, let the roasted halves cool, then press the flesh through a tamis or against a wire rack to remove the skins in one pass. Finish in a food processor until fully smooth, adding a splash of water only if needed to get it moving. Season to taste with salt, lemon, and good olive oil or brown butter — or freeze the unseasoned purée for later use.

Full recipe and a wedge variation with walnut sauce available at row7seeds.com.