could you maybe say something about edible and inedible pumpkins? like what sorts might look nice but should only be decorative and which look like they should poison you but are perfectly fine to eat? and is there a danger of confusing some sorts?
Sure! So basically, when they talk about edible vs. inedible pumpkins, they mean like “good vs disappointing to eat” and not “safe vs death”. I’ve never heard of a pumpkin that’s harmful to eat, it’s more that the texture can be lousy for baking.
A good eatin’ pumpkin will usually have pretty thick walls with smooth, wet flesh. Once baked, this gives you nice creamy flesh and in a good quantity to bake with. Pumpkins meant to be carved tend to have thinner walls with dry, stringy flesh that would be difficult to scrape up enough to bake with and isn’t very flavorful. So your main danger would be a lame pie.
I could rattle off a bunch of specific varieties, but most people are probably just choosing pumpkins from the grocery store where they aren’t labelled anyway. Stores usually stock a few certain classes of pumpkins:
The mini pumpkin. The tiny bois are said to be good to eat, but most folks just decorate with them. I only say they aren’t good to carve because you can’t usually fit a candle in there (I tried)
The pie pumpkin. The smallish, personal-watermelon-sized ones are usually the ones they’ve stocked for you to bake with. They’re far from the only kind that’s good to eat, but the manageable size makes them popular for the average shopper. They carve up ok too.
The jack o’lantern. The crate of big dusty ol pumpkins is there to be carved. Don’t expect really big orange pumpkins to be good to eat.
The heirloom. These used to be rare but I see them popping up in regular stores lately. Heirlooms are the funky-shaped, different-colored ones - those are generally fine to eat. Some of these look downright unappetizing but old timey folks were about surviving the winter more than decor, and so edibility and shelf life are the reasons these have been kept going through the years. Many of these have thick walls that make jack o’lanterning difficult, but don’t let me stop you from doing it anyway.
I hope that helps a bit!
