Hello all, I was wondering if I could get some opinions on these pumpkins, a few days ago me and my husband went to a pumpkin patch and we picked out these and a few big ones. However last night I saw some recipes online for pumpkin butter, I know when making pumpkin butter the little pumpkins and sugar pumpkins are the best. I went to a few different places in town today looking for other pumpkins to make puree out of, but all the ones I saw said not for consumption and I was wondering if the butter would still come out okay using these ones
by leagreat
4 Comments
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I don’t know why a pumpkin would be labelled as not for consumption, you would need to ask the seller why they are labelled as such. In any case though, canning pureed pumpkin or pumpkin butter is not safe due to the density. See here: [https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#35](https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#35) and here: [https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#36](https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#36) If you want to can pumpkin you need to do it in cubes, not pureed. Here are the directions for pumpkin/ winter squash from NCHFP ([https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/pumpkin_winter_squash.html](https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/pumpkin_winter_squash.html)).
Obligatory: you cannot can pumpkin puree.
That being said, I make and freeze TONS of pumpkin puree every year from all types of pumpkins and winter sqaush. Not butter, just straight puree, but you can freeze the butter just fine. To make puree, I do it similar to Alton Brown’s method in his pumpkin pie recipe.
Cut in half. Clean guts. Rub with olive oil and salt. Roast in over at 400F cut side down. It’s done when you can pierce it easily with a fork, usually about 40 min. Once cool-ish, de-skin. Puree in food processor.
To freeze, I measure into portion sizes for my recipes and freeze in loaf pans, mini loaf pans, large muffin pans, etc. Once frozen, pop it out of the pans and vacuum seal the blocks.
Unless they were sprayed with something not safe for consumption or they had some sort of coating applied to it, I can’t see why it would say not for consumption. The jack o lantern pumpkins can be watery and won’t make the best pie filling or puree…maybe that’s it?