Stringy pumpkin for Jack O'Lantern?!

[QSis]

This is the second year in a row that my pumpkin has been stringy like spaghetti squash!!

It's way more difficult to clean out, and more difficult to carve than the solid-flesh pumpkins I'm used to.

I thought last year was a fluke, but it happened again this year.

What's up with that??? It's really annoying!

Lee

 

[BreezyCooking]

I go through the same thing every single year. This year I saved it all & plan on cooking it down & adding to the dinner for the "hounds from hell".

I wasn't as ambitious as previous years. Just had too much going on today.

 

[QuirkyCookery]

From everything I've ever been told, it's because they're too old. The older they are, the larger they get....the larger they are, the stringier they get.

That's why you buy small sugar pumpkins when you want to bake and use the flesh vs. the large ones you tend to get for jack-o-lanterns.

 

[BreezyCooking]

That makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Cooksie]

Wow, the skeleton j-o-l came out great!

 

[QSis]

Hmmmmm, I've always bought large pumpkins, but only had stringy ones the last 2 years, so I'm thinking it's not the size of them.

Could be that they were old. Maybe a different variety?

I did hear that this was a bad year for pumpkins.

Thanks for the replies, folks!

Lee

 

[Leni]

Sugar pumpkins and jack o' lanterns are two different kinds of pumpkins. Sugars are bred for cooking. The jacks have more water in them and are more stringy. They are bred to be larger and better for carving.