Carving Pumpkin?

[redsturgeon]

Mrs RS bought a pumpkin to carve for Hallowe'en.

I hate food waste so I was planning to make a soup with it.

I looked at it today and saw it said "Carving pumpkin".

Hmmm I hope it tastes OK!

John

[AleisterCrowley]

When I were a lad, it was swedes and turnips!
Not the easiest things to carve, but the smell of candle wax and gently charring turnip just means Halloween to me

[redsturgeon]

When I were a lad, it was swedes and turnips!
Not the easiest things to carve, but the smell of candle wax and gently charring turnip just means Halloween to me

It were sugar beet in my younger days, young fella!

Similar smell though, I guess.

John

[AleisterCrowley]

I'm rather partial to mashed swede as the weather turns colder. Preferable to filthy carrots anyway

[UncleEbenezer]

Flavour can be a little on the thin side compared to a butternut or similar culinary squash, but perfectly adequate. Be sure to start from a thoroughly flavoursome base: lots of strong spices! I also usually add tofu, and whatever general-purpose mixer veg might come to hand. Serve with a wee dram of Islay malt to indulge a bit, or if you have a cooking-grade variant of the scottish bogwater you can include it in the cauldron.

[UncleEbenezer]

I'm rather partial to mashed swede as the weather turns colder. Preferable to filthy carrots anyway

Swede makes a decent winter soup, too. I usually think of it as the next iteration of souping veg on from the autumn's squashes and pumpkins. But one wants to be a bit more subtle about spicing it: just the merest hint of garlic; ground pepper and perhaps turmeric rather than lots of hot chilli, cloves and the like.

[redsturgeon]

I can now see why it was call a carving pumpkin...as far as I could tell it contained nothing that I would have wanted to cook or eat. Just lots of seeds and mush and a small amount of tough stringy flesh.

John

[JMN2]

I can now see why it was call a carving pumpkin...as far as I could tell it contained nothing that I would have wanted to cook or eat. Just lots of seeds and mush and a small amount of tough stringy flesh.

John

The ones I saw at Sainsbury's yesterday had black mold...

[midnightcatprowl]

The ones I saw at Sainsbury's yesterday had black mold...

Mmmm yes. I made a rare venture into Lidl the other day - they are okay for some things but not near to me so I only have a quick whizz round if I happen to be going in that direction for some other reason. The first thing you saw as you went in was a huge waist high cardboard container full of very cheaply priced pumpkins. Some were okay, many of them mouldy, some a bit squashed, some thoroughly squashed and spreading gunge and mould all over the container and the other pumpkins. As an ex shopkeeper it just shocks me that a display is left in that condition. It also explains why I don't buy fruit and veg from Lidl (or at least from the nearest to me Lidl) as you don't see the problem just with pumpkins. In fact I also had to avert my eyes from a display of shrink wrapped broccoli, there was a large quantity in stock and each and every head was yellowing and still people were buying them!

The 'carving pumpkin' concept also bothers me a lot with the waste of land and water and doubtless fertiliser used to grown them. Carving swede did used to be a bit of a challenge but at least what came out was perfectly edible and ready to be cooked.

[AleisterCrowley]

Does seem like a waste of resources
I don't know if 'carving pumpkins' are a less-palatable variety, or if they are just 'eating pumpkins' grown beyond their ideal size

It's a lovely word, pumpkin

[bungeejumper]

The 'carving pumpkin' concept also bothers me a lot with the waste of land and water and doubtless fertiliser used to grown them. Carving swede did used to be a bit of a challenge but at least what came out was perfectly edible and ready to be cooked.

My wife returned from Sainsburys with a £3 pumpkin that must have weighed ten pounds - and I'd guess that it must have cost them a quid to get it from the farm into the store. I can only think that the supermarkets are running these things as a loss leader?

Anyway, it took a Stanley knife to get through the super-thick skin - not really a task for children - and once we were into it there as barely an inch of flesh, but an enormous amount of gloopy stringy, clammy orange stuff that was a Halloween challenge in its own right. Just putting my hand in there was not something I'd want to do every day!

In fact pumpkins (and courgettes and squashes) need very little in the way of inputs once they get started. My daughters generally grow a few on a bit of waste land, and they say they need no maintenance and no feeding. My own experience with courgettes is that I've had plants being completely sawn off from their roots by slugs, but still producing magnificent crops on the strength of the rainwater they collect through their leaves, and nothing else.

Either way, any part of our pumpkin that doesn't get eaten will be going on the compost heap, so it won't really be a loss to the world.

BJ

[voelkels]

There are two main cultivars of pumpkins generally sold in stores in the U.S. the larger of the two is yellow and is used to carve into jack-o-lanterns and decorations for Halloween. The smaller cultivar, usually locally called a “pie pumpkin”, is a darker orange color and is used for food.

That being said, the flesh of the “carving pumpkin” is eatable but not as flavorful as that of the “pie pumpkin”, which is sweater. I used to cut the pumpkin up into 5 or 4-inck square or rectangular pieces, scrape off the seeds & stringy stuff and bake it in a moderate oven until soft. I would then allow it to cool and scrape off the flesh from the skin. I used the flesh for baking pumpkin pies, not as sweet and flavorful as the “pie pumpkin” but cheaper and acceptable.

Besides cooking the flesh for food, be sure to roast the seeds (See; https://www.bettycrocker.com/how-to/tip ... gJzfPD_BwE ) for a tasty snack.


C.J.V.

[James]

It's a lovely word, pumpkin

Indeed.

I was at a disco a number of years ago when the disk jockey played a song that I recognised, but couldn't remember the artiste. I asked the lady whom I was dancing with and she commented 'Smashing Pumpkins'. 'Thanks for the compliment' I said. 'It's the tight jeans I'm wearing, but do you know the name of the band?'

With moves like that I'm surprised you didn't end up with smashed pumpkins.

[MrCPFG]

I'm rather partial to swede as the weather turns colder.

Me too. Ulrika Jonsson in the old days...

MrCPFG

Note to moderators and traffic wardens: This is a deliberate misquote for humourous effect in order to garner recs and luvvies (or whatever passes as a luvvy on TLF). Aleister Crowley didn't post this in its original format, although I've heard his real name isn't Aleister, or Crowley, and he isn't an occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, or mountaineer by trade, and he has never knowingly started his own religion.

[JMN2]

But what is this 3rd variety, country pumpkin?

[voelkels]

For more then you really want to know about pumpkins see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin .

N’Orleans restaurant critic, author and radio personality Tom Fitzmorris had a recipe for pumpkin soup with tasso in his “New Orleans Menu Daily” (See; https://nomenu.com/ ) a few days ago. It can be found at his recipe site, if y’all don’t want to wade through his udder ramblings, at https://nomenu.com/?p=2714 .


C.J.V.