As October 31st approaches and departs, we are often left with at least one looming orange ball of ...food. Pumpkins are nutritious and it's unfortunate to waste all that goodness.

After doing a bit of research into a time when pumpkins were grown for food and not décor, I found several interesting recipes from early settlers who knew all about frugality. In some Early American communities, late fall was a flurry of harvesting, preserving, and baking pumpkin that was preceded by the apple harvest. Now we just carve and chuck. Here are a few of the recipes I gleaned from my early American cookbook, “America Cooks,” of unknown publishing date.

All pumpkins should have the stringy internals removed as well as the seeds. The seeds can be roasted with sea salt and olive oil for a nutritious snack or can be saved and replanted for next year. Pumpkin “meat” is the wall of the pumpkin with the skin removed.

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Pumpkin Butter

7 cups of smooth pumpkin sauce (boil pumpkin “meat” until tender & mash if required)
5 cups brown sugar
½ tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp other spices if you wish (ie: allspice, nutmeg, etc.)
1 cup vinegar

Mix all ingredients well and bake in oven, stirring occasionally until thick

Can or freeze and use later for pumpkin pie filling (boil off excess liquid first) or as a spread
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Pumpkin Preserve

Weigh pumpkin meat first, then steam until tender.
For every pound of pumpkin, take:

1 lb of sugar
½ cup of water
1 lemon (juice and then cut peel into tiny squares)

Boil the sugar, water, and lemon juice/rind together until a syrup is formed.
Skim the syrup of any floaters
Add pumpkin and allow to simmer until pumpkin is transparent and syrup is thick.

Seal in cans once cooled or freeze.

Use as a substitute for jams.
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Pumpkin Bread
a simple recipe from New York in the 1800's

Meat of ½ medium pumpkin (or 1/3 large one)
1 cup of water
2 tsp salt
Cornmeal

Cook pumpkin in water until soft. Strain, return to pot and continue heating. Stir in sufficient cornmeal to make a stiff pudding.
Add salt, stirring.
Continue cooking until cornmeal is softened and cooked through.
Pour into a lightly greased pan and bake at about 350F for 3 hours or until browned.


And the final, most interesting recipe:
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Pumpkin Rum
two different methods that accomplish the same result:

1 Pumpkin
1 Large bag of brown sugar

Remove the top of the pumpkin and set aside. Hollow the pumpkin out.
Fill the interior with brown sugar and replace the top.

You can either:
1)Replace the top and seal the seam with candle wax.
2)Replace the top and not seal it.

With method 1), allow the pumpkin to sit for a minimum of 1 month before opening up and drinking the contents.
With method 2), wait until pumpkin top begins to bubble and hiss. Then drill a hole in the bottom and top of the pumpkin and drain out the contents.

Rum can be placed in a glass jar and stored in the cupboard. Please be moderate with your consumption.


I hope that everyone is able to get their money's worth and a belly-full from this year's pumpkin harvest!