[Sca-cooks] Re: Pumpkins (was Not the place for Political )
Laura C. Minnick
lcm at jeffnet.org
Sat Nov 20 01:32:49 PST 2004
At 01:03 AM 11/20/2004, you wrote:
>A couple of you have mentioned doing pumpkin pies from scratch. My mom
>did one years ago, and it turned out rather bland. I believe she just
>popped 'em in the oven & baked them first. I have heard that there is a
>specific variety of pumpkin that is appropriate for baking rather than
>carving, and after mom's experience, have never tried the scratch thing again.
>
>Are you having good luck with 'em? Is there a specific sort of pumpkin to
>look for either in the grocery or in seeds for the garden?
I'm sure that there are varieties that are more like the canned pumpkin
when cooked up, than others. Of course, the canned stuff isn't actually
pumpkin- I read somewhere that it's a different squash- Hubbard comes to
mind but that might not be it. They get away with calling it pumpkin
because it's so near to it, and squash is squash, I guess. And carving
pumpkins are bred for thinner flesh. Cooking pumpkin or stewing pumpkins
are much more solid.
My mom made pumpkin pir from scratch one year, and it was awful. She cut it
up and boiled it, and then mashed it. I remember them being really watery,
bland, and the texture was wrong. I've had better success with baking it in
a fairly slow oven, and running it through a food mill to make it smooth. I
think part of my mom's problem was that it was waterlogged, and all the
pumpkin-y goodness went out the back step into the berry patch with the
water- I remember it was rather orange. Baking/roasting I think would solve
that problem. Then once you get the texture right, it's a matter of
spicing, I suppose. I discovered a couple of years ago that some powder
forte goes really well in pumpkin pie- but not too much, or it'll punch you
right in the nose!
'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be
governed by men worse than themselves. -- Plato
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