You may have read on the internet conflicting or confusing blogs and pages on canning pumpkin. Without my knowledge of this confusion I bought a pumpkin to purée this Fall, and found out as I prepared the canner that most people don’t can their pumpkin, but they use it immediately or freeze it. As I searched more and more I found conflicting results for this subject and not a lot of clarity on the “why” behind the confusion. So today I am going to share with you why you can’t can pumpkin and what to do instead.
Why you shouldn’t can pumpkin:
Pumpkin is great to have year round, we use it through Fall and Winter both, and love to grow and harvest our own produce. So when the confusion came forward this year on pumpkin purée and the water bath I was already in too deep to abandon the project. Like seven or eight cans of purée too deep. This lead me to search until I found answers on why it isn’t worth the risk of canning, and why it should actually be avoided no matter what other canners may say.
Pumpkin in any form is extremely dense (as are most vegetables alike, for example: squash). Pumpkin butter, purée, even cubed pumpkin. This is what makes it impossible to can.Not because it won’t seal or doesn’t work- but because of a deeper reason.
The process of canning actually acts as a purification process for the goodies inside the jars. Most canned goods are a liquid, jelly for diced pieces of fruits and vegetables which makes it easy for the middle of the substance to get to boiling temperature so the purification occurs. But pumpkins just don’t allow for that. So much so that they don’t even recommend canning diced pumpkin.
This purification is so important in the canning process. It guarantees your product is emptied of bacteria before it sits on the shelf. If this isn’t the case the effects can be harmful and deadly if consumed.
This is why you need another game plan. Because though this is the case, I love having purée and Pumpkin spreads, and like to keep a stock. If that’s your exact predicament keep reading.
So, if you can’t can pumpkin, what do you do instead?
This going to be a simple and maybe frustrating answer to some, as it was to me at first. The main way to preserve pumpkin is by freezer. This I did by jars, but an easier method- and my future method- would be freezer bags. Filling a freezer ziplock bag and flattening it to preserve space. Label by product and year and place in the freezer. This can be a bit inconvenient unless you are prepared and do your best to preserve freezer space.
The night before it’s use, place it in the fridge so it’s thawed and ready for your recipe.
Just like that, preserve your pumpkin and make goodies all year round with it.
Thank you for reading, have questions or comments? Let us know below!
