Jill Wellington / pixabay.com / 2015 / CC0 1.0
Pie pumpkins are pumpkins that are good for making pumpkin pies from.
Most tend to have orange rinds but this is a category of pumpkin, not a variety, so rind colour can vary by exact variety.
Pie pumpkin sizes
Pie pumpkins generally will be between 1 3/4 to 4 1/2 kg (4 to 10 pounds), and be far smaller than pumpkins preferred for carving. Large pumpkins are bad for pies. The larger a pumpkin is, the more the flavour is spread out over more flesh, weakening the flavour. It also means that the flesh needs to store a lot of water, making it watery, as well as coarse and stringy. Instead, for pies, you want flesh that is finely-textured.
Pie pumpkins have dry flesh
These pumpkins will have dry (i.e. starchy, not watery), sweet flesh with good, pronounced flavour and sweetness. At the beginning of the harvest season, they may perhaps be too dry even for pie, but if left longer, some of the starch will convert to water and sugar, making them better for pies.
Less water in them means better pumpkin pies (which are a custard, and a watery custard won’t set.) It also means that you don’t have go through the step of trying to simmer the water out to end up with more flesh in the end to work with — more work which doesn’t always translate into more flavour.
Pie pumpkins. ©Denzil Green / 2005.
Cooking Tips
For every 500 g (1 pound) of whole pie pumpkin that you start off with, you will end up with about 1 cup / 8 oz / 250 g of pumpkin purée to work with in pies.
A size of 1.8 kg to 2.7 kg (4 to 6 pounds) yields enough flesh to make one pie from.
To process a pumpkin for pies, see the entry on pumpkin purée.
Language Notes
Sometimes referred to as “Sweet Pumpkins.”
Varieties of pie pumpkins
- Amish Pie Pumpkins
- Autumn Gold Pumpkins
- Baby Bear Pumpkins
- Baby Pam Pumpkins
- Buckskin Pumpkins
- Bushkin Pumpkins
- Casper Pumpkins
- Cheese Pumpkins
- Chelsey Pumpkins
- Cheyenne Bush Pumpkins
- Cornfield Pumpkins
- Cotton Candy Pumpkins
- Dickinson Pumpkins
- Early Autumn Pumpkins
- Early Buckskin Pumpkins
- Early Cheyenne Pie Pumpkins
- Eastern 7 X 7 Pumpkins
- Funny Face Pumpkins
- Ghost-Rider Pumpkins
- Gold Keeper Pumpkins
- Golden Centennial Pumpkins
- Howden Pumpkins
- Howdens Field Pumpkins
- Hybrid Pam Pumpkins
- Kentucky Field Pumpkins
- Large Cheese Pumpkins
- Libby’s Select Dickinson Pumpkins
- Long Island Cheese Pumpkins
- Mammoth King Pumpkins
- Mystic Plus Pumpkins
- Pam Pumpkins
- Small Sugar Pumpkins
- Snack Jack Pumpkins
- Spookie Pumpkins
- Spooktacular Pumpkins
- Sugar Treat Pumpkins
- Touch of Autumn Pumpkins
- Trickster Pumpkins
- Virginia Mammoth Pumpkins