Same here. Interestingly, there’s lots of Himalayan/Tibetan restaurants around me, and curries with pumpkin in them are very common dishes.
“I’m sad that I’m glowing.”
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So, what is a pumpkin anyway? As far as I can tell, winter squash and pumpkin are interchangeable and the word pumpkin has no real scientific definition. It’s a mess. Just chunk the whole thing.
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It is, in fact, 100% canned.
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i have a can of heinz spotted dick in my pantry.
really.
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Problem solved!
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I’d be willing to try those.
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Ask and ye shall receive
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In olive oil, like a civilized person.
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Right its a cultivar of a different species of squash than we usually think of as ornamental pumpkins. The issue isn’t that its “not pumpkin” since pumpkin is just what we call round squashes. The issue is that most varietals of pumpkin in the US aren’t intended to be edible. They’re ornamental. So they suck. And we forgot that because we generally don’t eat pumpkins anymore.
The dickinson is an heirloom variety of Cucurbita Moschata bread down from the Long Island cheese pumpkin.
To be easier to handle and process.
All those varietals of ornamental (yes even sugar pumpkins, a largely failed attempt to make ornamentals palatable) are Cucurbita pepo. Yes the dickenson and cheese pumpkin are the same species as butter nut squash, as are most “pumpkins” that taste like anything. But those other pumpkins are the same species as Acorn Squash, Zucchini, and crooked neck squash. All things referred to as “squash”. Also inedible ornamental gourds.
Its a bit more complicated that than. The 5 dozen or so varieties of also ornamental pumpkins sold at my local farms are like wise universally considered pumpkins. Very few of those are actually eating pumpkins. Most of them are ornamental. Outside of the handful of eating pumpkins (almost always C. Moschata) the vast bulk of pumpkins produced in the US and Canada are pure ornamental. Never meant to be eaten. Commercially the only eating pumpkins produced in volume are the dickinsons for canning. Other varieties are typically only grown at low levels and distributed to the specialty and local markets. There really isn’t a specific variety sold for carving in the US, there are dozens. I think the most common are Autumn Gold, Aladdin, and Sugar pumpkins. None of which you should eat.
Basically we forgot that there’s a distinction between ornamental pumpkins and eating pumpkins. And post 1900 the country largely stopped growing the eating ones. Hence the cheese pumpkin. Which until the turn of the century was the default pumpkin. It became the “long island cheese pumpkin” as an heirloom. Because only Long Island kept growing it. Lazy food writers take Libby’s entirely honest and accurate claim that their canned pumpkin is better than the pumpkins you’re used to because those pumpkins aren’t good. And the detail that their pumpkins are the same species as butternut squash in a link bait direction.
Also there’s the issue that pumpkin is a squash. Its a word without technical meaning, its just how we refer to round squashes.
Cassia is cinnamon. Its just a different type of cinnamon. A different species yes, but traditionally refereed to as cinnamon as well (its the genus name). And for many recipes, including potentially pumpkin pie, cassia is quite often what they always called for.
Because the vast bulk of this country does not have access to pumpkins that are suitable for eating. So buying a fresh pumpkin and attempting to make something tasty out of it is a lost damn cause. That’s why there are so many blind taste tests out there comparing fresh pumpkin to canned (and specifically Libby’s, some canneries don’t know the difference either) canned always wins. Unless they’re informed enough to include a proper eating pumpkin in the mix.
The slimy mess that is the wrong real pumpkin.
Get a better pumpkin. We’re 100% about the cheese pumpkin here, but there are plenty of other tasty varieties. Almost all of them regarded as heirloom. In a pinch Kobacha which we label a squash in this country. But is pretty clearly a god damned pumpkin, and that’s how its otherwise referred to. It’s damn tasty and widely available.
This whole thing was clearly reported and unpacked like a decade ago. Those TV listicle shows like unwrapped and how its made from ~2000 we all like “Its not pumpkin!” when covering Libby’s. And Hell I think even Alton Brown was on the “its more a butter nut squash” kick for a bit. The internet picked it up a bit later for link bait. Then some people who actually know a damn thing about farming and crop varieties cleared it all up. Now the cycle repeats yearly.
Not always. A lot of your eating pumpkins are pretty large. The cheese pumpkins I keep going on about can be 2 feet in diameter. They’re almost always very thick walled though.
That’s new. Involves very little actual pumpkin. And most Americans are horrified by it too.
But most of the ornamental pumpkins and gourds live in a separate species, with a handful of edible winter squashes. Notably the acorn. Winter squashes are mostly C. moschata, along with almost all heirloom eadible pumpkins. Summer squashes mostly C Pepo. But pepo gets winter acorn squash, and all the stuff you’re not supposed to eat. Basically its the now default pumpkins that aren’t pumpkins.
Again wrong pumpkin. Most eating pumpkins cook just about the same as any squash. You can just roast it. Pull the skin off. And then do what you will. Larger ones can be improved with some draining, but you just park them in a colander till they cool.
Aren’t really an eating variety. The attempt there was to breed a new variety from existing ornamentals that was more palatable. By increasing the sugar content. Sugar content is the least of the problems with the flavor of ornamental pumpkins. So it has largely been a failure. and its mostly grown as an ornamental. If you dig on Acorn and Spaghetti squash you probably like them as a squash. But they’re still thin walled, incredibly watery, stringy and don’t taste a lick like pumpkin.
Excellent adivice if you’re limited on pumpkin choice. Both varietals are commonly referred to as pumpkins in some areas. Both actually taste like eating pumpkins. And both are widely available. Butternut squash is similar enough to substitute for pumpkin, but its doesn’t exactly taste right and noones gonna call it pumpkin.
As @Snowlark says its not quite the same as a proper pumpkin flavor wise. But if you can’t find a good pumpkin, butternut squash pie is a good substitute for pumpkin pie.
And again no. Sugar pumpkins aren’t the edible ones. All of them are technically edible. Its an issue of palatability. Sugar pumpkins are an ornamental with (barely) higher sugar content, they don’t taste like the pumpkins traditionally called for in pumpkin based cookery.
Those things are always terrifying. Especially the “fossil” ones you occasionally see photos of from museums. I might be making a few this year.
Assuming from the carved turnips you’re in Ireland. You’ll have a better time finding edible pumpkins there. Europe never went in for the whole ornamental squash thing the way the US did. And from what I understand most European varieties of pumpkin tend to be the eating sort. Even where they’re generally considered animal fodder.
Basically it just means “round squash”, and it has no technical definition.
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I grew those one year, and they came back the next two! Hard as heck to carve, though. 
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…looks at the crazy sales figures of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, pumpkin coffee/donuts at every donut store, and the massive influx of pumpkin flavored items covering every shelf at Trader Joes… Most Americans, you say? Well, ones who yell on the internet and whine on Facebook, perhaps.
Oh yes, just roasted one up the other day. Wonderful vegetable.
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I can’t vouch for your expertise, so I’ll rely on your passion.
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I’m sure you can make anything edible with “a little butter and salt”.
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How about when a recipe specifies a #2 or #10 can? My grandmother sent me to the store for a #2 can of something or other. I came back with the right thing but the wrong can size. (Nowadays one can use a mobile device while at the store to find this)
In my grandmother’s recipes it always says “oleo.” There are also a substantial number of recipes calling for gelatin and I also recall one that specifies “Nippy Cheese.”
(from Boing Boing’s FB page, about a year ago)
Now that stuff was disappointing. (IMHO; YMMV)
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As some one who has to try selling this shit (specifically pumpkin beer) it doesn’t sell nearly as well as you’d think given how many products are out there. Its like the McRib thing. As a limited time offer (!) it drives a little bubble that makes for decent sales market wide. But these things aren’t good. They do not sell outside of their little bubble of promotional buzz. And those sales are largely limited to heavy purchases by the small subset of fans that go crazy for them. In my experience on the beer/booze side, and what I hear from people in other businesses, they’re less and less salable every year. Our local brewery ended up with something like 20,000 cases of unsold pumpkin beer last year. And the local bakeries and farmers markets have given up on the vast bulk of pumpkin spice products they used to sell. Sticking to pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin butter, and a handful of things they always made (from actual pumpkin). Most people seem sick to death of the trend. But then that one pumpkin spice fan comes in and they buy like 15 of everything to hoard for the off season. So it remains a viable option for major brands and chains.
The market’s also totally glutted with product. My smallest beer distributor has something like 50 varieties of pumpkin beer, and 10 different pumpkin ciders. All these things are cannibalizing each other sales. If there’s enough interest to sell 100 of something, but you’ve got 20 versions of that something on the market. No one of those things is going to be selling 100. Its bad business, and I do not think its long for this world.
Like my endless rants about oysters and seafood I tend to think if people knew a bit more my neighbors in farming would be doing better financially. They get a lot more per pumpkin off heirlooms and eating pumpkins. And yet they’re filling trucks with cheap as balls sugar pumpkins every year and wondering how to make ends meet.
Also I would call it rage. PUMPKIN SPICE RAGE.
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And the award for “most individual replies in a single comment” goes to…
(But really, it’s an honor just to be mentioned 
)
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Also, I accidentally clicked this article when i was trying to view the previous one about Trump’s campaign chief but it took a paragraph of reading before I realized I was in the wrong article because the photo of those disgusting lumps of orange colored nastiness didn’t seem out of place.
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I came late to the pumpkin party. And sadly I think I’ve had more individual replies.
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Speaking from Canada, I can attest to the valid inclusion of Canadian pumpkin-related activities in the North American grouping. Might not be universal, true.
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