La courge au gratin - Testing

from French Country Cooking by Elizabeth David, pg161

1 - Reasonably successful on the first try. The only thing I'd like to do is standardize the amount of salt, since I didn't put in enough. In such a dish, how the heck do I know how much is enough salt before it's baked?

2 - I made it again, and decided to add a couple extra egg whites, if only because whisking a single egg white to stiff peaks seems like so much effort for so little! It made a more souffle like thing, but quite good nonetheless. The thing is the moisture from the pumpkin - next time I'll try squeezing out extra liquid since this time there was a small amount of liquid soaking the bottom. Not horrible, but I want to see if it would be better with less of it.

1lb pumpkin

1oz butter + more for the topping

1/2 cup milk

1 egg + 1 egg, separated + 2 egg whites

1/2 tsp salt  

Pepper, to taste

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1. In slightly salted water boil the pumpkin. Press the flesh through a sieve to remove the skin and make smooth. Drain off any excess liquid (maybe even squeeze some out?)
2. Preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the pumpkin flesh and mix together.
4. Beat in the milk the first egg, the extra egg yolk and season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg. (The last time I made this it was really quite liquid. The egg whites incorporated well when I folded them in, regardless).
5. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, and gently fold into the pumpkin concoction.
6. Pour into a gratin dish, dot the surface with butter, and pop in the oven until the top starts to brown, about 20 minutes.