Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
General Cooking (rec.food.cooking) For general food and cooking discussion. Foods of all kinds, food procurement, cooking methods and techniques, eating, etc. |
Reply |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
We were at the local pumpkin patch and we decided to buy a couple to cook a
few recipes with. The kids decided to buy a white colored pumpkin and one that is gray (or gray with a blue/green tinge). Are these pumpkins OK to eat? Is their flavor different from a run of the mill orange pumpkin? We have never seen the gray variety before. Are these destined to become jack-o-lanterns, or Saturday's dinner and dessert? Thanks! Frank |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 23:58:52 -0700, "Frank"
> wrote: >We were at the local pumpkin patch and we decided to buy a couple to cook a >few recipes with. > >The kids decided to buy a white colored pumpkin and one that is gray (or >gray with a blue/green tinge). > >Are these pumpkins OK to eat? Is their flavor different from a run of the >mill orange pumpkin? > >We have never seen the gray variety before. > >Are these destined to become jack-o-lanterns, or Saturday's dinner and >dessert? > >Thanks! >Frank > They may be sweeter or less sweet depending on what you've eaten before. Perhaps drier, or moister, maybe stringier or not. But they'll all be good to eat. The color of the rind is meaningless. The cucurbit family of which winter squashes and pumpkins are a part sports a large variety of rind colors but there's not a terrible lot of difference on the inside. To give more specific answers we'd have to know the variety names of the fruit that you bought. The big orange Jack O'Lantern type of pumpkins are usually a bit more watery, stringier, and perhaps not quite as sweet as the smaller pie type pumpkins and the other winter squashes like the Hubbards and so on usually have a bit better flavor, in my opinion. Open one up and see! ......Alan. -- Curiosity killed the cat - lack of it is killing mankind. |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
Frank wrote:
> > We were at the local pumpkin patch and we decided to buy a couple to cook a > few recipes with. > > The kids decided to buy a white colored pumpkin and one that is gray (or > gray with a blue/green tinge). > > Are these pumpkins OK to eat? Is their flavor different from a run of the > mill orange pumpkin? > > We have never seen the gray variety before. > > Are these destined to become jack-o-lanterns, or Saturday's dinner and > dessert? > > Thanks! > Frank I can't tell you abnout the white one, but the grey one sounds like a Blue Hubbard squash--yum! Squash vary mostly in their water and sugar content. BH is a good, drier one. I vote for dinner and dessert. gloria p |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
Frank wrote:
> > Are these pumpkins OK to eat? Is their flavor different from a run of the > mill orange pumpkin? I doubt if you could tell the difference. You can make pumpkin pie with just about any kind of squash. |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
About 20 years ago when I was getting interested in cooking, I decided
to try all those wildly shaped and lovely colored winter squashes that I saw in the grocery store this time of year. I went through them all, baking each one in turn and deciding what I thought of them. They did taste different but not in such a distinctive way that I had any clear preference. I decided to stick with the ordinary. I like acorn squash and butternut more because they're readily available and an easy size to work with. Since then, I've found enormous variety within the variety. I've had acorn squash that were fabulous-- sweet, flavorful, perfect, the sort of thing you buy a bunch of, bake up and want to eat 3 times a day while the good luck lasts. Then I've gone back to the same table at the same store, gotten the next shipment and had them be starchy and sawdusty. If I could figure out how to choose a good squash from picking it up in the supermarket, I'd be a happy woman. --Lia |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
"Puester" > wrote in message ... > Frank wrote: > > > > We were at the local pumpkin patch and we decided to buy a couple to cook a > > few recipes with. > > > > The kids decided to buy a white colored pumpkin and one that is gray (or > > gray with a blue/green tinge). > > > > Are these pumpkins OK to eat? Is their flavor different from a run of the > > mill orange pumpkin? > > > > We have never seen the gray variety before. > > > > Are these destined to become jack-o-lanterns, or Saturday's dinner and > > dessert? > > > > Thanks! > > Frank > > > > I can't tell you abnout the white one, but the > grey one sounds like a Blue Hubbard squash--yum! > Squash vary mostly in their water and sugar > content. BH is a good, drier one. I vote for > dinner and dessert. > > gloria p The gray one is definitely not a Blue Hubbard. Mine is a typical pumpkin shape and the skin is nice and smooth and shiny. The pictures of Blue Hub that I saw on the internet today are more typical elongated squash shapes. Also those Blue Hub seem to grow rather large in the 20# range and both my white one and gray one are both about 6 pounds each. I can email pictures if anyone is really interested. But from the other responses here, I think we will cook them both and see what happens. One will become a soup and we'll use its hollowed out shell as the serving dish and the other we'll find something creative to do with that one as well. Some kind of dinner-in-a-pumpkin dish, I think. |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
"Frank" > wrote in
: > We were at the local pumpkin patch and we decided to buy a couple to > cook a few recipes with. > > The kids decided to buy a white colored pumpkin and one that is gray > (or gray with a blue/green tinge). > > Are these pumpkins OK to eat? Is their flavor different from a run of > the mill orange pumpkin? > > We have never seen the gray variety before. > I'm more used to the grey/blue varieties than the orange. I've never seen a large orange pumpkin (of the sort I see made into jack-o-lanterns on US shows/websites etc) in the store here. Mini orange ones, yes, like golden nuggets etc. Butternut pumpkins are a vaguely orangey colour I suppose, though quite pale. The other pumpkins I see (although they tend to be more often sold in pieces rather than whole) are Queensland Blue (bluey/green/grey skin), Jarrahdale (grey skin), Jap (green skin with yellow flecks). They all have orange flesh of different shades. So grey skinned pumpkins are definitely edible. Don't know what type you've got, but this website has photos of Jarrahdale and Queensland Blue on their site, http://www.ebfarm.com/farmstand_pumpkin-id.html and they also have a white pumpkin - didn't see if there was any info on it though. -- Rhonda Anderson Penrith, NSW, Australia |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
"Julia Altshuler" > wrote in message
news:diFlb.2699$Tr4.18481@attbi_s03... If I could figure out how to choose a good squash from > picking it up in the supermarket, I'd be a happy woman. I've never in my life cooked any type of winter squash, but I'm interested in learning. So my ears pricked up the other day when I heard a weekly 5-minute cooking tips segment on my local NPR station that featured local chefs talking about how to buy squash and what to make with them. You probably already know this, but being a squash newbie, I didn't. The chefs said to pick squash that seemed very heavy for their size. They also gave recipes for butternut squash with pears, and butternut gorgonzola puffs. Mmmm. Cate |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
I'm sorry I missed the spot. For all my experimenting with winter
squash, I cook them pretty much the same-- split, scoop out seeds, bake face down until soft, then keep baking until softer and sweeter. From there, if they're sweet enough, I serve as is. If not, they get butter or brown sugar. Long ago I used to make a recipe that involved stuffing them with sauteed apples and onions, then topping with cheese. Tell me what the featured chefs said about buying them. I know to choose ones that are heavy for their size (meaning that if 2 are the same size, choose the heavier). Other than that, I haven't a clue as to how to find one that's sweet and flavorful. The butternut gorgonzola puffs sound interesting. Getting a little off topic. I don't normally count on finding good food at airports, but running through Chicago's O'Hare to catch a connecting flight, we got butternut soup to go at Wolfgang Puck's. It was wonderful. I could hardly believe it, but I said to my boyfriend "imagine getting this soup at a fine restaurant instead of plastic fast-food joint." We both agreed it was as good as anything we'd gotten at fancier places. --Lia Cate wrote: > I've never in my life cooked any type of winter squash, but I'm interested > in learning. So my ears pricked up the other day when I heard a weekly > 5-minute cooking tips segment on my local NPR station that featured local > chefs talking about how to buy squash and what to make with them. > > You probably already know this, but being a squash newbie, I didn't. The > chefs said to pick squash that seemed very heavy for their size. > > They also gave recipes for butternut squash with pears, and butternut > gorgonzola puffs. Mmmm. > > Cate > > > |
|
|||
|
|||
Flavors of pumpkins
"Julia Altshuler" > wrote in message
news:cw0mb.5941$9E1.29722@attbi_s52... > Tell me what the featured chefs said about buying them. I know to > choose ones that are heavy for their size (meaning that if 2 are the > same size, choose the heavier). Other than that, I haven't a clue as to > how to find one that's sweet and flavorful. I wish I could tell you more about that, but I wasn't listening closely until I heard the word gorgonzola. Here it is on the local affiliate's web site: http://www.wypr.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=features&id=4 I don't think they have audio files, but there are recipes from this spot and from old ones. > The butternut gorgonzola puffs sound interesting. I take it back. I disinctly heard the words 'gorgonzola puffs' but the web site (above) has a recipe for butternut gorgonzola soufflette. > Getting a little off topic. I don't normally count on finding good food > at airports, but running through Chicago's O'Hare to catch a connecting > flight, we got butternut soup to go at Wolfgang Puck's. It was > wonderful. I could hardly believe it, but I said to my boyfriend > "imagine getting this soup at a fine restaurant instead of plastic > fast-food joint." We both agreed it was as good as anything we'd gotten > at fancier places. Hm. The only place I've ever had butternut soup is at Moosewood, and it turned me onto eating squash. It was delicious--not too doctored up. The flavor really came through. Wish I could say that about the rest of Moosewood's food. Cate |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
pumpkins | General Cooking | |||
pumpkins! | Preserving | |||
Pumpkins in Africa | General Cooking |