Leftover jack-o'-lantern pumpkins

[designchick88]

We ended up with a couple extra pumpkins that we got as gifts from a nice old man down the street who grows them in his backyard. We accepted them graciously, but we had already gotten a couple and had carved them, and didn't really want to make more jack-o'-lanterns.

They are not "pie pumpkins" from what I can tell. They're big pumpkins. I had heard that you can't cook with the jack-o'-lantern pumpkins, they taste terrible and you need to buy "pie pumpkins" to be able to cook with them.

Is there anything I can do with these pumpkins, or should I trash 'em?

TIA

[snowangel]

Is there anything I can do with these pumpkins, or should I trash 'em?

TIA

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Whack them up with an axe and put them in the compost. Foor for next summer's garden.

[designchick88]

Good idea. I need to go out and turn the compost pile anyway. I hope I can find our axe in the trash heap we call our garage. :)

[WHT]

Good idea. I need to go out and turn the compost pile anyway. I hope I can find our axe in the trash heap we call our garage. :)

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The tradition in our family is to turn the jack-o-lantern into Thanksgiving pie. Trim off the burnt areas and the wax.

[Jason Perlow]

The seeds are edible -- toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper them, maybe a little bit of paprika, and roast them in an oven for about 40 minutes -- they are called Pepitas and are eaten as snacks. If you have the patience to peel the shells, the meats can be used in Mexican mole sauces such as Pepian sauce. Other than that, everything else in the Jack O Lantern type pumpkin is not edible.

[chromedome]

Sonuvagun. Here I've been cooking and eating those suckers for years, and nobody ever bothered to tell me they were inedible. Go figure.

(I skip the ones that've had candles in them, not being partial to the flavour of wax, but to each his own.)

[lala]

You can certainly use 'Jack O'Lantern' pumpkins for pie, they're just not the preferred pie pumpkin, as they tend to be dry and stringy. If you have a choice, go for the 'Sugar Pie' pumpkins, which are bred for cooking.

[andiesenji]

There are some "all purpose" pumpkins and a lot are grown around here. We have a very long growing season and with irrigation, they do quite well. To get larger fruit the farmers pick off some of the budding flowers with the fruit bulb at the base and sell them at roadside stands, but leave the male flowers (or sometimes pick and sell them too.)

You can always cut off a 6 inch x 6 inch chunk of the pumpkin, scrape off the seeds and wrap it in the microwavable plastic wrap, (at least two layers) punch a couple of holes in it, and nuke it at 60% power for 5 minutes.

Test it with a fork right through the plastic wrap. If the fork penetrates easily its done, otherwise give it 2 or 3 more minutes and test again.

Remove it from the microwave (carefully) and let it cool until you can handle it comfortably.

Then scoop up some of it and taste it and see how the texture is. Even if it is a bit stringy, I can guarantee that after it goes through a food mill or a food processor you won't notice the strings.

There are only a few varieties that have been bred strictly for growing very large and most of the commercial growers do not bother with them, the common pumpkins are the ones that go to the packers to be canned.

[mklynch]

I agree with Andie, some of the pumpkins that were leftover from decorating my fromt porch have tasted really good. I've used them in soups where I puree and strain them if they're stringy. Deffinitly worth giving it a try!

[andiesenji]

Here is the same message from the University of Illlinois.

I also called Amelia Stevenson, owner of The Punkin Patch in Wheeler Springs. She says that only the pumpkins that have the "Jumbo" designation before the name are unsuitable for cooking because the flesh is very woody. These are the monsters that can easily get to 200 pounds and many go way over that with careful selection of a single fruit on a vine and augmented feeding.

Amelia sells over 80 tons of pumpkins each year, to jobbers or wholesalers, retailers in the area and from 5 area stands she and her family maintain each year plus the festival at the home farm. Next year they plan to add a corn maze to the home farm in Oxnard for the festival which will be during the last week of October.

P.S. Amelia says she has baked so many pumpkin pies over the years that she can make one in her sleep. The smallest one was a 3/4 inch pie and the largest was made in a 24 inch cast iron skillet.