a large vegetable fruit, typically orange in colour, round, and ribbed, borne by varieties of the plant Cucurbita pepo, one of four major species in the genus Cucurbita; see cucurbit.
The name is thought to derive from an old French word pompon, which in turn came from the classical Greek pepon, a name also applied to the melon.
Fruits of the species C. pepo and its hybrids may have other common names, such as squash (with various epithets); but it is within this species and its hybrids that we find the varieties known as Spirit, Trick-or-Treat, and Connecticut Field, which are among the traditional Hallowe'en pumpkins, and the others which have the distinctive shape and coloration which are particularly associated with the name pumpkin. However, the name ‘pumpkin’ is not a precisely defined one and it may be applied to certain varieties of related species, especially when they happen to resemble the true (Hallowe'en-type) pumpkins. Thus fruits of Cucurbita maxima, winter squash, may be called pumpkins.
Pumpkins are eaten when fully ripe. They often grow to a large size: the unconfirmed record holder, grown by Ivan Peace of Suncook, New York, in 1962, had a claimed weight of 122 kg (268 lb).
Pumpkin flesh is rather fibrous and has an earthy taste which is not universally liked. It is used for both savoury and sweet dishes. The Argentinian method of cooking a meat stew in a hollowed-out pumpkin uses the extracted flesh of the vegetable to thicken the sauce.
The French use pumpkin almost exclusively for making soups (soupe au potiron); however, in uses in the Rhône-Alpes, especially in the south, a pumpkin-flavoured bread is made (pain de courge). Originally the pumpkin was a cheap wheat ‘extender’, but a premium is now paid for this speciality bread, which is eaten like brioche, for breakfast, tea, or a snack. Citrouillat is a pumpkin pie from Berry. For an interesting pumpkin speciality in Majorca, see angel's hair.
When pumpkin is used in sweet dishes, spices such as ginger and cinnamon are commonly added. This practice goes back a long way. For example, American pumpkin pie, a main feature of the American Thanksgiving dinner, may have been derived from old English recipes for sweet pies using ‘tartstuff’, a thick pulp of boiled, spiced fruit.
In Cyprus kolokotes, pasties (about the size of Cornish pasties) stuffed with pumpkin and crushed wheat, are popular in the winter, e.g. for a quick hot breakfast on a cold day. Nicolaou (1983) believes that this delicacy is unknown outside Cyprus. The use of cloves, cinnamon, and sultana raisins to flavour the filling suggests an ancient origin.
In Spain and Mexico pumpkin seeds (pepitas) are eaten roasted, fried, or salted; and they are a popular snack in other countries too.
The tendency for the name ‘pumpkin’ to be used in a very wide sense, including what are more commonly known as squashes, is well illustrated by the following quotation from Lady Llanover (1867), whose comments on the use of pumpkins in Welsh kitchens are anyway of intrinsic interest:
Few vegetables are so little understood and consequently so much undervalued in Great Britain as pumpkins. Perhaps Gower in South Wales is the only part of the United Kingdom where pumpkins are grown as an article of diet by the rural population; and there they are to be seen, as on the Continent, hanging from the ceilings for winter store, and any little spare corner in the field or garden is made use of to place the small mound on which to sow a few pumpkin seeds. The varieties of this plant are so numerous that it would be beyond the limit of any cookery book to attempt an enumeration of comparative merits, from the vegetable marrow to the Turk's turban and the yellow pumpkin, which grows to such a size as to fill a wheelbarrow; but it will not be out of place to note shortly a few of the modes in which pumpkins are available. For white soup they can be used alone, with merely the addition of onion, celery and sweet-herbs for flavouring. They are excellent when boiled, sprinkled with salt and sweet-herbs; or fried in egg and crumbs like soles. Also plain, boiled in slices and served with brown gravy. In Gower they are added to hashed meat, made into pies with apples, and put into soup. Pumpkins have one peculiar quality in addition to a good deal of natural sweetness; they will absorb and retain the flavour of whatever they are cooked with. If stewed with plums it tastes exactly like them in puddings and tarts; the same with apples, rhubarb, or gooseberries; and for savoury cookery it would be difficult to say in what dish it may not be used with advantage as an addition.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Llanover, Lady (1867), The First Principles of Good Cookery, facsimile edn, Tregaron: Brefi Press (1991).
Nicolaou, Nearchos (1983), Cooking from Cyprus, Nicosia: Nearchos Nicolaou.
