Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So I bought 5 small pumpkins thinking they were pie pumpkins. They all looked exactly the same. I roasted them, wanting to freeze the the flesh in portions for future use. After I roasted and cut them open, only one had the tell tale sweet, orange flesh. The other 4 were stringy, yellow, not sweet, not much taste. I had to toss them.
I thought I would save money by not buying those expensive canned pumpkins and here I go throwing them all out.

Is there a way to tell a sweet pie pumpkin by looking at it? I'm thinking the 4 I got were maybe immature regular pumpkins. Dang, what a waste.

Where do you live that canned pumpkin is expensive and fresh ones cheap? Here, one pie pumpkin is $4 and a can is .99.

pumpkin on its own doesn't have much taste; if you've ever tasted canned pumpkin (plain pumpkin, not the pre-mixed pie filling), you know it's just squashy and pretty bland. if you want the squash to be naturally sweet, try kabocha. otherwise, you will need to sweeten the pumpkin yourself.

pumpkins are cheap now as they are in season, cans here are much more expensive, none in sight for 99 cents.
The 1 pumpkin that had orange flesh was so sweet and taste, it was awesome. The others tasted terrible, so there is a difference.

99 cents! Wow...here I just saw them for $3.19 each.

For canned pumpkin?!

Wegmans has massive stacks of them on end caps. The Libby's for .99. I got a few cans of organic at Trader Joes a while ago for $1.89.

Sometimes grocery prices just seem so random. Squashes are always pretty pricey around here, regardless of seasonality.

I roasted my first sugar pumpkin a couple weeks ago for an Isa tester recipe. It was lovely.

Canned pumpkin is around $3 at the last store I went to.

Are you guys talking about the 26oz cans or the small ones?

Small ones, Libby. This was today at lunch time, in a supermarket in Tribeca, and I think I have seen them cheaper in TJ's and that's why I remember it so clearly. I know I thought "Wow...are they that expensive and I just never looked, or are they very expensive here??"

we don't have cans here, and i have made pies from almost every squash. as acr says, Kabocha has the best color and sweetness. maybe next time? honestly i'd have a hard time telling a pie pumpkin from any other old pumpkin.

I'm going to go hoard cheap canned pumpkin now!

Last year, it was hard to find and expensive because of some shortage.

yeah, I think of canned pumpkin as being expensive.
also I agree that pumpkin is not actually the best winter squash for pies. I usually use butternut or kabocha.

Do you live in the U.S., M&M ? if so, you could try putting message on freecycle in your community that you are looking for people's leftover halloween squashes. You might get some nice ones that way.

Could have been that one was a different type of pie pumpkin -- there are different ones.

canned pumpkin is pretty hard to come by & fairly expensive in my part of England, so i've taken to roasting & pureeing fresh pumpkins. you have to be careful though, because most places that sell them here don't specify whether their pumpkins are for carving or cooking. last month i bought one from an organic grower (who, to her credit, tried to steer me toward other squashes) and after roasting i could literally squeeze water out of it. i have managed to get some decent sugar pumpkins, but they seem to be going out of season now. using butternut or kabocha sounds like a good way to go. or even sweet potatoes, if i'm feeling wild.

I'm with those advising other squash. I usually use Butternut, but Red Kuri and Thelma Sander's Sweet Potato squash are also great.

yeah, red kuri are great!

I bought Styrian pumpkin once and after roasting it was just water, tasteless water.

Butternut and Red Kuri work well.