[Sca-cooks] Using fresh pumpkin instead of canned in a recipe?

[Elaine Koogler]

Tara Sersen Boroson wrote:

> I feel like such an idiot asking this ;)  You know, I've made pumpkin 
> pie and pumpkin soups many times in the past, and have always used 
> fresh pumpkins, never ever canned.  But, I've always chosen recipes 
> that *called* for fresh.  I have no idea what they do to pumpkin 
> before they can it, if it's really comparable to the real stuff.
>
> So, can anybody tell me, if a recipe calls for solid-pack canned 
> pumpkin, can I use roasted mashed pumpkin one-for-one by volume?  
> Alternately, in some old time cookbooks I have here I see advice to 
> roast the pumpkins, mash the flesh, then tie it up in cheesecloth to 
> let it drip and condense like making yogurt cheese.  Do they condense 
> it like this before canning?
>
> I have a coupla nice pumpkins sitting begging to become a hearty 
> soup.  I was going to use my regular recipe, but then I had a curried 
> pumpkin soup with coconut milk at a cafe and thought I'd died and gone 
> to heaven.  Lo, I found such a recipe at epicurious, but it calls for 
> solid-pack canned.   I just want to make sure it's not going to turn 
> out all watery or anything before I invest the time and ingredients...
>
> Thank you!
> -Magdalena vander Brugghe
> lurker of late...
>
I've used fresh pumpkin to make pumpkin bread.  I found that baking it 
usually was sufficient...and I did substitute it for the canned pumpkin 
in the recipe.  Worked out just fine.

Kiri