Know Your Pumpkins

By Alana Chernila, a mother of two girls from Western Massachusetts and writer of The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making and healthy food blog Eating from the Ground Up.

Know Your Pumpkins

It never fails to surprise me every year. Sometime around the end of September, I run to the supermarket, grab my bags, and hurry, head down, towards the store, grocery list in hand. (This is how I have to shop, focused and determined to be efficient, or else I’m the type to get derailed, dreamy, and lost in the dairy aisle contemplating butter varieties.) But then it’s there—a wall between the parking lot and the store, orange from top to bottom.

Oh, pumpkins.

Like most of the country, I’m a sucker for pumpkin, but it’s taken me a little while to figure out how to actually eat it.

The Relationship Between Pumpkins and Squash

All pumpkins are winter squashes, but beyond that, there are very few hard and fast rules as to what’s defined as a pumpkin. In the US, we call certain round, orange winter squash varieties pumpkins, although in other parts of the world, other winter squash might be called pumpkins as well. But because pumpkins are, in fact, winter squash, they can be used interchangeably in many recipes.

Pumpkin Varieties

Most pumpkins you find in the grocery store are best for carving jack-o’-lanterns. These pumpkins are bred to be large, regular in size and color, and strong-walled. They’re edible, but their flesh is usually stringy and tasteless, and they’re so large and hard that they’re difficult to break down into pieces for roasting. Although it can be tempting to try to use one of those pumpkins for pumpkin puree, I recommend you skip the big ones, and look for the other, smaller varieties that are better for eating. And the one thing you absolutely don’t want to do is to eat a pumpkin you’ve carved and let sit out, as those pumpkins have already degraded to the point where they’re not safe to eat.

Many stores will have a bin marked “pie pumpkins” or “sugar pumpkins” and there won’t be any specific variety on the sign. These pumpkins are probably much smaller than the carving pumpkins, and they might be irregularly shaped. However, if you’re at a farmers’ market or farm stand, you might have your pick of varieties. My absolute favorite pumpkin for eating is called a Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin. It’s as round as a 19th century French bosom, and its beautiful mottled skin is just as luminous. Its flesh is velvety and super sweet, and it makes fantastic pie. Other varieties to look for are the New England Pie, Long Pie (easy to spot by its oblong shape), and the Baby Pam. Most varieties will keep well for 6 weeks to up to a few months, so if you find a good variety, stock up.

How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Puree

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Use a large, sharp knife to cut the stem end off each pumpkin, creating a flat top. Cut each pumpkin in halves if they’re smaller, or quarters if they’re larger. Scoop out the strings and seeds, and throw them in a bowl to set aside for roasting separately (we’ll get to that in a moment).

2. Place pumpkins flesh side down on a lightly greased rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the halves are very soft when pricked with a fork and on the verge of collapse, 60 to 90 minutes depending on the pumpkin variety and size. Remove from the oven and carefully flip over each half, venting the steam away from your face. Let the pumpkin cool.

3. Separate the flesh from the skin, either by peeling the skin off or scooping the flesh out of the skin. (The variety will determine the method- just do what's easier.) Transfer the pumpkin flesh to a food processor or high-speed blender and process until smooth, working in batches if you have more pumpkin than your machine can handle. This may happen quickly, or might require some tamping down, shifting of pumpkin pieces, and patience. If the pumpkin is dry and refuses to transform into a smooth puree, add water, a few tablespoons at a time, until you have a puree.

How to Store Homemade Pumpkin Puree:

Pumpkin puree isn’t suitable for water bath canning, but it freezes beautifully. When pumpkins are on sale or I find a variety I love, I roast up as many as I can fit in the oven, and then I freeze the puree in glass containers or quart size freezer bags. Usually one afternoon of pumpkin roasting results in plenty of puree that I pull out of the freezer for pies, chili, and pumpkin bread through the winter.

The Difference Between Homemade Pumpkin Puree and Canned Puree:

Homemade pumpkin puree tends have a higher water content than canned. If you're making soup, or some similar forgiving recipe, there's no need to worry about the added water content. But if you're making pie, pumpkin bread, or some other baked good, drain your pumpkin puree through a cheesecloth-lined strainer in the refrigerator for a few hours before using.

And the taste? Like any vegetable, you might get a knock-out pumpkin and you might get a more average specimen. But the good ones are SO good. They’re sweet and rich and velvety, and I can always taste the difference in my recipes.

And of course, don’t throw out those seeds!

Scoop out all of the sticky seeds at the pumpkin’s center and place them in a bowl. Fill the bowl with water and use your hands to agitate the strings and seeds to make the seeds rise to the top. Fish out the seeds, boil them in salted water for 5 minutes, drain, and dry in a towel. Toss with oil (about 1 teaspoon per cup of seeds) and salt. You can also add chili powder, cumin, rosemary—any herbs or spices you like. Roast in a 350°F oven until they pop and sizzle, 17 to 20 minutes, shuffling the seeds around halfway through the baking time.

What's your favorite way to enjoy pumpkins?