Pumpkins were a popular crop in the 1800s. They were easy to grow and if stored properly in a warm, dry place, could be kept all winter.

Recipes from old cookbooks used fresh pumpkins, but if one called for stewed pumpkin, it’s like the plain canned pumpkin we buy today.

Recipes often did not include baking times or how hot to make your oven because oven thermometers hadn’t been invented yet.  You were supposed to already know or learn through experience. 

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

Deep colored pumpkins are generally the best. In a dry warm place, they can be kept perfectly good all winter.

When you prepare to stew a pumpkin, cut it in half and take out all the seeds. Then cut it in thick slices, and pare them. Put it into a pot with a very little water, and stew it gently for an hour, or till soft enough to mash. Then take it out, drain, and squeeze it till it is as dry as you can get it. Afterwards mash it, adding a little pepper and salt, and very little butter. Pumpkin is frequently stewed with fresh beef or fresh pork.

The water in which pumpkin has been boiled is very good to mix bread flour with, it having a tendency to improve it in sweetness and to keep it moist.

PUMPKIN INDIAN CAKES
Take equal portions of Indian meal,* and stewed pumpkin that has been well mashed and drained very dry in a sieve or colander. Put the stewed pumpkin into a pan, and stir the meal gradually into it, a spoonful at a time, adding a little butter as you proceed. Mix the whole thoroughly, stirring it very hard. If not thick enough to form a stiff dough, add a little more Indian meal. Make it into round, flat cakes, about the size of a muffin, and bake them over the fire on a hot griddle greased with butter. Or lay them in a square iron pan, and bake them in an oven. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter.

* Indian meal – corn meal

BAKED PUMPKIN
Slice the pumpkin one-fourth inch thick, peel and put a layer in the bottom of a baking dish. Then add a layer of sugar with a sprinkle of cinnamon and dot with butter. Repeat this until the pan is full. Let the top be well covered with sugar. Bake in a moderate oven* until the sugar becomes like a thick syrup. 

* moderate oven – about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit

PUMPKIN LOAF
Take one quart of stewed pumpkin mashed fine, one teaspoon each of salt and baking soda, one tablespoon sugar, and three pints of corn meal. Stir all together while boiling hot. Steam four hours, or steam three hours and bake one hour. To be eaten hot with cream, or butter and sugar.

PUMPKIN MARMALADE
Take ripe yellow pumpkins, pare and cut them into large pieces. Scrape out the seed, weigh, and to every pound take a pound of sugar and an orange or lemon. Grate the pieces of pumpkin on a coarse grater and put in the preserving kettle with sugar, the orange rind grated, and the juice strained. Let it boil slowly, stirring frequently and skimming it well until it forms a smooth, thick marmalade. Put it warm into small glass jars or tumblers and when cold, cover with a paper dipped in alcohol and another heavy paper pasted over the top of the glass.

PUMPKIN TART
Take three-fourths pound pumpkin, the juice of one-half lemon, sugar to taste, and make some paste* for short crust. Line a plate with the paste. Meanwhile, cut the pumpkin into dice and stew it with a little water until tender. Add sugar and lemon juice and cover the paste, which should have been previously brushed over with white of egg, and bake the tart until the crust is done.

* paste – a crust for pies (recipe below)

PUMPKIN PIE
Cut pumpkin in pieces and bake in a hot oven*, then mash and strain. To one and one-half cups baked pumpkin, add one-half teaspoon ginger, one egg well beaten, two-thirds cup brown sugar, one-half teaspoon salt, one teaspoon cinnamon, one-half teaspoon cornstarch, and one and one-half cups milk. Prepare paste and bake. Pumpkin pie is greatly improved by being eaten with Devonshire cream and sugar. An equal quantity of apples with the pumpkin will make a still more delicious pie.

*hot or quick oven – about 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit.

COMMON PASTE FOR PIES (will make one large pie or two small ones)
Sift one and one-half pounds of flour into a pan. Cut three-fourths of a pound of butter, washed, into two equal parts. Cut one half of the butter into the flour, cutting it up as small as possible. Mix it well with the flour, wetting it gradually with a little cold water.

Spread some flour on your paste-board. Take the lump of paste out of the pan, flour your rolling-pin, and roll out the paste into a large sheet. Then stick it over with the remaining half of the butter in small pieces, and laid at equal distances. Throw on a little flour, fold up the sheet of paste, flour it slightly, and roll it out again. Then fold it up, and cut it in half or in four, according to the size of your pies. Roll it out into round sheets the size of your pie-plates, pressing rather harder on the rolling-pin.

Butter your pie-plates, lay on your under crust and trim the edge. Fill the dish with the ingredients of which the pie is composed, and lay on the lid, in which you must prick some holes, or cut a small slit in the top. Crimp the edges with a sharp knife. Heap up the ingredients so that the pie will be highest in the middle.

ZUCCHETTI FARCIS
Take some very small gourds or pumpkins, boil them for about one-fourth hour in salt and water, and then fill them with a stuffing made as follows:

Take some crumb of bread and soak it in milk, squeeze it and add the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs and two raw yolks. Chop up very finely half a dozen blanched almonds with a couple of cloves. Add two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, and a little salt and grated nutmeg. Stew these gourds in butter and serve them with white sauce.

image from Pixabay

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