When choosing a pumpkin for cooking, you have several varieties to choose from. There are butternuts, sugar plums, and heirlooms, the sweetest, most flavorful, and easiest to find in your local grocery store. But the question is, which is the best type for cooking? We’ll look at some of the most popular varieties below, as well as their benefits.
If you prepare a pumpkin for pie, you should choose one with smooth, even skin. The more giant the pumpkin, the more likely it will be a great pie. This type of pumpkin has a ridged, deep-colored exterior and is generally a good choice for most recipes. But it would help if you were careful to choose the right one for your recipe.
How To Choose The Best Cooking Pumpkin?
1. Select The Correct Type
Sugar pumpkins (also known as pie or sweet pumpkins) are small and spherical and are ideal for cooking. Long Island is a state in the United States. Cheese pumpkins, which are oblong and resemble a wheel of cheese, are also edible. Field kinds are more significant, with a stringy, watery flesh, and are best utilized for decoration.
2. Look For A Healthy Stem
Find a pumpkin with a well-attached, brown, dried stem (an indication it’s ready to be picked), but don’t use it as a handle. The stem can fall off, ripping the shell and exposing it to decay.
3. Examine Thoroughly
Look for severe nicks, bruising, and soft patches, which are all rot symptoms. Don’t forget about the bottom of the pumpkin, which might sit in wet soil for a long time.
4. Don’t Base Your Decisions On The Color
The pumpkin color will fade as it ages, but the flesh inside will remain pleasant and edible as long as the skin is pristine and free of bruises.
5. Keep It In A Safe Place
Pumpkins should be stored whole in an excellent, dry location. They should be firmly wrapped, refrigerated, and used within five days of being cut. Any leftovers should be pureed or cubed and frozen for later use.
Some Best Type Of Pumpkin For Cooking
Casper
Although you might not think of white pumpkins as something to eat rather than show as distinctive decorations, ‘Casper’ contains delectable sweet flesh. The 15-pound fruits are ready to harvest 115 days after planting, and the deep orange flesh is delicious in sweet and savory meals.
Cherokee Bush
This is one of the few bush kinds that can be grown at home; however, it requires some room due to its four to five-foot spread. The fruits weigh five to eight pounds, and the gold-yellow flesh is deliciously roasted in a cream soup or pureed to add to pancake or muffin batter.
Cinderella
The 15-inch-wide orange fruits resemble the famous fairytale carriage. They also have a relatively short growing season, lasting roughly 110 days from direct seeding to harvest. This allows you some extra time to stock the freezer and gets the canner ready for savory pumpkin dishes like butter, soups, and pickles.
Green-Striped Cushaw
When we moved into her South Knoxville house, and she moved a few blocks away, Genevieve, my first mother-in-law, let us keep the enormous stash of frozen ‘Cushaw’ cartons in the freezer. Since then, I’ve been enamored with these winter squashes with creamy flesh.
They’re pumpkins, but their curving necks and white and green patterned shells can make you think otherwise. They reach around 20 inches, and imaginative designers freely utilize them in harvest-themed and Halloween decorations. On the other hand, the flesh is pure pumpkin flavor, and it’s sweet and mild, and it’s deliciously roasted, pureed for pies or custards, or steamed to add to salads and other dishes.
Dill’s Atlantic
Enjoy the “biggest pumpkin” competitions at your local county fair. You might be surprised to learn that: This behemoth yields edible flesh, as well as being the variety of choice for growers aiming for blue ribbons and even world records (a 1,500-pound pumpkin!).
Producing one of the whoppers that win state fair competitions would take devotion and years of labor. However, your ‘Dill’s Atlantic’ growth efforts should yield a gourd or two weighing up to 400 pounds.
The vines require a lot of TLC to produce, mainly because they need extra water and nutrition to create those gigantic babies and a minimum of eight feet between them.
However, the massive pumpkins you can produce (if you have the space) will quickly fill your freezer with rich orange, creamy, silky puree, savory soups, stews, and kinds of butter.
Folklore
The French heirloom ‘Fairytale,’ shaped like Cinderella’s modest pumpkin-turned-haughty-carriage, is another whimsical-but-practical inheritance. When fully ripe, the fruits weigh about 15 pounds, and the straight sow to harvest period is 125 days.
The patient home cook will be rewarded since the deeply lobed fruit has excellent dark orange flesh that is dense and silky, making it ideal for cooking. There are also recipes where you roast the whole pumpkin or serve a soup or stew in the shell if you’re ambitious (I’m not…)!
At a dinner party or family Thanksgiving, the flat, ribbed shape of ‘Fairytale’ is a show-stopper, and you may have both looks and flavor with this one!
White Pie Pumpkin
The ribbed, green-grey skin is excellent for decorating and eating. The flesh is sweet and makes for the perfect filling in a pumpkin pie. The white pie pumpkin has slightly off-white flesh, making it ideal for baking and pies. Whether you use the flesh to make a pumpkin pie, bake a loaf of bread, or make a salad, this type of pumpkin is a popular choice for both baking and cooking.
Although the white pie pumpkin is not suitable for cooking, it can be used in baking and decorating. The white flesh is sweet and makes it an excellent choice for pies. While it doesn’t hold up well to frying or baking, it’s an excellent choice for pies. And it’s not just the white pie pumpkin; there are also many varieties of white pumpkin that are an excellent choice for baking.
Baby Bear Pumpkin
This variety is the classic small pumpkin. You can roast this whole, stuff it, and serve it in soup. Its mild sweetness makes it ideal for roasting, pureeing, and baking. You can also try a mixture of both in sugar pie. For the best results, choose a pumpkin with both a light and a deep orange color. This variety is also known as the pie pumpkin or sweet pumpkin.
Jarrahdale Pumpkin
Unlike the yellow-and-green varieties, this pumpkin is blue-gray and similar to Queensland Blue. The flesh is golden-orange and is excellent for boiling and baking but unsuitable for carving. Its tiny size also makes it an excellent choice for Halloween decorations. Lumina Pumpkin: Despite its ghost-like white mien, this type of pumpkin is still an excellent choice for baking and cooking.
Blue Doll Pumpkin
This type of pumpkin is ideal for roasting and baking. The blue doll pumpkin is smaller and less flavorful than traditional orange pumpkins but is the best choice for soup. These smaller, more decorative varieties are also suitable for cooking. And they are great for decorating. However, their soft flesh makes them less suitable for sweet recipes. So, while blue dolly pumpkins are the best-suited for cooking, the orange ones are best for pies and decorative purposes.
The Lakota Pumpkin
This type of pumpkin is an heirloom variety native to the midwest. It is pear-shaped and has red-green stripes, and is often the best choice for pie. Its flesh is rich and similar to butternut squash. If you want to avoid the dyes, buy an heirloom variety of the heirloom Lakota. It will have the highest quality green-orange seeds, and you’ll be glad you did.
How To Perfectly Prepare Pumpkin?
To remove any surface dirt, thoroughly wash the outside of the pumpkin with warm water. Then, place the pumpkin on a firm work surface, such as a large chopping board. Cut into the pumpkin with a serrated knife (yes, this will require some muscle!), then cut around the handle to make a hole in the top.
With clean hands, scoop out the guts and seeds. To collect any remaining bits, use a large metal spoon. Separate the seeds and save them aside for later roasting. Remove and discard any stringy bits. The pumpkin is now ready to be utilized in pies and baked products or simply for roasting the flesh.
Cut the pumpkin shell in half and roast (approximately 30 minutes at 350 degrees) or microwave until fork tender (place the pieces in a microwave-safe bowl covered with plastic wrap and cook on high for 15 minutes). To produce a puree, scoop the cooked flesh from the peel and place it in a food processor or blender. It can be used to make muffins, ravioli fillings, and soups.
Conclusion
When choosing a pumpkin for cooking, you should consider the type you’re cooking. If you’re primarily using the pumpkin for pie filling, look for a three to six pounds variety. Having the right kind of pumpkin will depend on what you’re planning to use it for. Some varieties are more nutritious than others, so choose one that suits your needs. A few different heirloom varieties are best for baking, while the smaller ones are better for carving.
Pumpkins are in season from September through November, so pumpkin recipes are popular during the fall holidays. Your local farmers’ market will most likely have the best selection of pumpkins, but your preferred grocery shop should also have a good selection. To begin, it’s crucial to distinguish between cooking pumpkins and jack-o’-lantern carving pumpkins.
