Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Good gourds: How to make your own pumpkin pie filling
No canned pumpkin? Not to worry -- make your own pie filling.
Lindsey Nair
Front Burner blog
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Every year, "Peanuts" character Linus waits around for a Great Pumpkin who never shows. This year, grocery store shoppers were almost in a similar predicament.
Fortunately, the Great Canned Pumpkin Shortage of 2009 was over before panic and dismay began to set in. After all, what would Thanksgiving and Christmas be without a golden brown slice of pumpkin pie?
At the risk of sounding too maternal, I will say that this little scare creates a perfect learning opportunity -- in the absence of canned pumpkin, one can still create a delicious pie with just a few tricks and tips.
First, the lowdown on the shortage.
Rain, rain, go away
Libby's, a subsidiary of Nestle, enjoys 80 percent to 90 percent of the canned pumpkin market share. Spokeswoman Roz O'Hearn told me surplus pumpkin from the prior year's harvest is usually used to stock store shelves in September and October.
But rainy weather in Illinois last year affected the size of Libby's 2008 harvest, O'Hearn said, so they went into the 2009 season with a limited supply of the canned squash.
A few of my blog readers reported seeing empty shelves when they went looking for canned pumpkin over the past month or so. Kroger spokesman Carl York said they were "on allocation" from Libby's for a while, meaning they could not get all of the pumpkin they ordered.
Fortunately, O'Hearn said, pumpkin from this year's harvest began shipping out in late September. The rationing has ended, she said, and shelves should be stocked through the holiday season.
But the 2009 harvest was affected by similarly wet weather conditions, and O'Hearn was not able to speculate on whether that means cooks will face the same supply problems early next fall.
"We won't know the situation for next year until this year's harvest is complete," she wrote in an e-mail.
I see this as a sign that serious pumpkin pie lovers should know how to make a delicious holiday pie from scratch, using various kinds of squash available in stores this time of year.
Smaller = sweeter
The squash family is divided into two categories, summer and winter. Pumpkins fall into the latter category, which is named not for the harvest time but for the thick-skinned fruits' ability to keep, or "overwinter."
The big, bright orange pumpkins piled in front of grocery stores right now are only one of many varieties, and truthfully, they do not make the best pies.
These jack-o'-lanterns tend to have stringy, less flavorful flesh, and if you keep them for a couple of weeks before turning them into pies, the flesh will have begun to dry out.
Smaller winter squash varieties generally have sweeter, creamier flesh that makes a much nicer pie filling.
Floyd County produce farmer Tenley Weaver said she and some fellow farmers grew a variety of pie-making squashes this year, including cushaws, sweet dumplings, Long Island cheese pumpkins and red kabochas.
Sean Jordan, produce manger at the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op, and Cheri Chalfant, who holds the same title for Harvest Moon in Floyd, said some of those varieties will be for sale off and on over the next few months at their stores, depending on availability.
But Jordan and Chalfant both said their favorite pie-making squash is one that can be found in great abundance this time of year: butternuts.
"They are much easier to deal with, not as stringy and much more consistent in flavor," Jordan said.
He shared an anecdote about a relative who said she disliked squash and would only eat a pumpkin pie. When Jordan served her a slice of butternut squash pie, she said, "See, I told you, pumpkin pie is the best there is."
Jordan said he has several hundred pounds of butternut squash at the co-op. Chalfant actually grows it herself because she is so fond of it. And butternut squash is readily available at supermarkets right now.
Is processing a whole winter squash by hand as easy as opening a can? No.
But is it satisfying? Yes -- much more so than waiting for a Great Pumpkin that never shows.
