Where do you buy pumpkin, for baking?

Question

Not the canned one, but an actual pumpkin for making pies. NOT the ones for carving, because those are grown for carving and do not taste good!

I live in california, so the markets here may be different from where you live.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

The pumpkins I got from Trader Joe's in Northern California, about two weeks ago, for Halloween, turned out to be incredibly fresh and juicy when I carved them on Saturday evening. I used tea lights in them so there was no wax in them when we were done with the trick or treat decorations. Sunday morning, I cut the carved pumpkins into about four pieces each and roasted them for an hour at 325 in my convection oven (you'd use a 350 degree setting for a regular oven), with a bit of water on the bottom to keep the juices from burning, and they turned out fabulously! It is so tasty. I ate a big bowl of it with some butter and salt for lunch. Be warned though that fresh pumpkin is very juicy when cooked, so you absolutely MUST strain it in a colander lined with cheescloth or a fine strainer for about an hour after roasting or cooking it on the stove, or your pie will just not set. If you want to go into the grocery store and look for a pumpkin to use for cooking, they are sometimes called "pie pumpkins" instead of "sugar pumpkins." I bought one of those, too, from Trader Joe's, for about $2, not knowing how well the big ones would turn out this year. (In the past, the ones I've gotten from Safeway have been dry, tough and without almost any smell at all.) Have fun!

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Asker's Comment:

Thanks! Very useful and a lot of details :)

Answer 2

Wherever you look--supermarket, grocery store or farmer's market--you need to ask for a "sugar pumpkin". They are smaller, no bigger than a cantaloupe.

Answer 3

I've made pumpkin pie from scratch, and I am telling you the canned pumpkin tastes much better. Smoother, better combination of spices, etc.

Answer 4

I have actually used a smaller pumpkin, sold with the other carving pumpkins, and it worked quite well. I think it has more to do with the size and age of the pumpkin than being a different kind of pumpkin. The older larger pumpkins are tougher and like most vegetables have probably lost sugar as they aged. You might also try simply using another type of squash and treating it like a pumpkin. Along with this you might actually find the type of pumpkin you are looking for in the same grocery bin or area as the other baking squashes.

Answer 5

In general cooking pumpkins are hard to find in big chain grocery stores, so you might want to try either farmers markets or cooperatives/natural food stores.

Also several types of winter squash such as Kabocha or red kuri can be substituted. Actually I personally think the above are more pumpkiny-tasting than pumpkins. Other squash like acorn or butternut also work pretty well, though a little different taste/texture. And don't try summer squash like pattypans, too much like zucchini!