Is there pumpkin in your pumpkin pie?

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  • #14108
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      The Wall Street Journal has an article on pumpkin pie's dirty secret, that canned pumpkin pie puree is from the Dickinson pumpkin, which some people do not consider a true pumpkin, though it is a member of the squash family.

      As many of us have learned, making pumpkin puree from scratch is a lot of work that sometimes produces less than fantastic pies.

      This article might be behind their paywall:
      WSJ article on pumpkin pie

      Spread the word
      #14109
      BakerAunt
      Participant

        The key to making pumpkin pies from scratch is to start with the right pumpkin. I've used sugar (pie) pumpkins for years. The "peanut pumpkin" (origin France) has particularly nice texture, as does the blue/grey Jarrahdale pumpkin (origin in Australia). I like a nice thick, non-stringy puree. Some pumpkin varieties taste better than others. I did not like the white Lumina. The Cinderella had far too much water to make it worth the trouble, given how little puree was produced after extensive draining.

        I cut the pumpkin in half vertically (a sawing knife helps) and scoop out the seeds with a grapefruit spoon. I roast the pumpkin in a Calphalon roaster, cut side down, at 325F for at least an hour or until flesh softens. With some varieties, water may accumulate in the pan; just pour it off. I turn the sliced halves over and let them cool briefly--until I can handle them. I scoop out the flesh and make puree in my Cuisinart food processor.

        I've done five pumpkins so far, and I have five more to do. I'll be roasting two of the pie pumpkins tomorrow.

        • This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
        #14111
        Joan Simpson
        Participant

          I've made fresh pumpkin pies but I'm just using canned now,it may be squash but it tastes good to me after all spices are in it.

          #14112
          RiversideLen
          Participant

            I wasn't able to read the article because it is behind a pay wall. But I had heard that before. My way of thinking on it is winter squash and pumpkin are pretty much the same thing (depending on variety) so it's all good. I have roasted sugar pumpkins and honestly can't tell the difference once it's made into something, i.e. pie, donuts, muffins, waffles etc. The Libby's always gives me good results and it's so easy to use. Plus it's consistent, I don't have to worry that the moisture content is going to vary as it might with a pumpkin I roast.

            #14115
            BakerAunt
            Participant

              I have read that butternut squash makes a dandy pie.

              #14117
              skeptic7
              Participant

                I use all the big winter squash and pumpkins interchangeably. In the past I've used long necked pumpkin, Long Island Cheese, Boston Marrow, Pink Banana and now I have Red Warty Thing ( I thought the name was a joke but I looked it up and there is a seed company that sells it ). This year the local supermarket had a sale on small pie pumpkins for 50 cents on Halloween, so I got three.
                I've been disappointed in some pumpkins which didn't have enough flavor but mostly all of these work well. A check on the Internet showed that pumpkins and squashes are all in the same family and can crossbreed easily.
                I was warned that the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins were bred for color and size and are too watery and tasteless to be good to cook, but all pumpkins are edible.

                #14118
                BakerAunt
                Participant

                  Note: I also could not read the article because of the paywall.

                  The two sugar pumpkins that I now have roasting were very difficult to cut open for some reason, even with my Kuhn-Rikon sawtooth pumpkin knife if was quite a struggle. I resorted to sticking a butter knife in where I'd started cutting to create a wedge, but it was hard going. At that moment, a can opener and a can of pumpkin looked appealing....

                  Jack-o-lantern pumpkins make very thin puree, and as Skeptic notes, do not have much taste. My mom used to cook them--even roast them--when she got a good deal at the end of Halloween (free). It's a wonder any of us still like pumpkin.

                  • This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
                  #14120
                  skeptic7
                  Participant

                    I cut my pie pumpkins with a Chinese chef knife. The thicker knives wouldn't bite through the skin. They had a lot of seeds and less flesh than I expected. It was hard removing the pumpkin strings from the seed cavity.
                    I like looking at the stories of left over pumpkins going to the zoo. The elephants especially seem to enjoy Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins.

                    #14121
                    BakerAunt
                    Participant

                      Well, the joke (?!) is on me. What the pumpkin producer at the farmers' market sold me back in October are NOT pie pumpkins. They seem to be a small variety of the jack-o-lantern type pumpkin. The first clue was the extremely hard-to-cut through skin. The second was when that skin was still hard after an hour, an hour and a half, and two hours of roasting. The third clue, when I took them out after the two-hour mark, is that the hard shells separated almost completely intact from the puree, which I was able to cut into chunks. There was no caramelization, so these two are definitely not sugar pumpkins.

                      They won't have much taste. I don't want to use them in baking. I'm not ready to make pumpkin/black bean/tomato soup again, where the pumpkin is just an element without much taste, and what taste it has is not tasty. I have thrown it away.

                      I have another three small pumpkins. I'm pretty sure one is a sugar pumpkin, so I may go ahead and bake it for my rolls. I'm not sure that I want to deal with the other two today.

                      I think that these vendors grow the pumpkin as a side project. From talking with them, I gather that the wife does not cook or bake with them. I may have to stick with peanut pumpkins and the blue-green ones and look elsewhere for my pie pumpkins.

                      • This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
                      #14123
                      Joan Simpson
                      Participant

                        I couldn't read the article either.

                        #14126
                        BakerAunt
                        Participant

                          Well, the next pumpkin that I tried to cut into also resisted my knife, so I stopped. I tried another one, and it cut more easily. I think that it smells and looks more like a pie pumpkin, so I am roasting it now. If it caramelizes, then it is a sugar pumpkin. If worst comes to worst, I can pull some frozen puree from the freezer.

                          This little episode has wasted a huge part of my day. I googled to see if I could find an explanation of how to distinguish between a pie pumpkin and a small jack-o-lantern (or perhaps decorative only pumpkin?), but even the one article that covered outside appearances, after first saying that the pie pumpkins are a darker orange, then said that some varieties of the sugar pumpkins are lighter in color. Aurgh!!

                          #14127
                          BakerAunt
                          Participant

                            OK, the single pumpkin that I roasted is indeed a sugar/pie pumpkin. Whew.

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