Fresh vs. Canned Pumpkin: I put them to the test!
People say fresh pumpkin is so much better than canned, so in today’s post I put them head to head and did a pumpkin pie blind taste test to draw my conclusions!
Is fresh pumpkin worth the effort, or should you just used canned pumpkin?
A few nights ago I laid in bed, eyes wide open, pondering that very question (because thinking about food before bed is way more fun than counting sheep).
For the longest time I had never bothered to use anything other than canned pumpkin. Mostly because so many recipes just say to use canned pumpkin by default. It seems like the common thing to do.
I mean seriously, which do we all WANT to be better? The canned pumpkin, obviously. All you have to do is open a can. It’s so quick and simple. Fresh pumpkin requires extra work.
But hey now, it’s not that much extra work, and I decided that it was time to see if the extra work is worth it. This extra work is basically just to cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, roast, and puree. Not difficult at all. So I set out to compare the two, to figure out whether fresh or canned pumpkin is the way to go.
In order to test, I first had to prep the pumpkin (make sure you buy a designated sugar or pie pumpkin). I scooped the seeds out with a melon baller (much like I did with my Maple Butter Roasted Acorn Squash). Save the seeds if you want to make roasted pumpkin seeds.
Place the pumpkin halves on a sheet pan to roast until tender.
Scoop the roasted pumpkin from the skin, and puree in a food processor until smooth, like this:
Once I had the pumpkin puree cooked like this, my husband and I both did a blind taste test.
Here were my notes:
- WOW pumpkin is not sweet at all. We think of it as sweet because it’s often used in desserts, but this stuff needs some sugar!
- Both of these pumpkin purees taste far too yucky to tell which one is better, at this point. No more tasting until I add some sugar.
- For now I will observe with my eyes, and I noted that the colors are very different.
So what I did is I made the exact same recipe for pumpkin pie, except I used the fresh pumpkin puree for one, and the canned pumpkin puree for the other.
This was the canned pumpkin mix:
And this was the fresh:
I stirred it all together, and here you can see the canned pumpkin mixture on the left, and the fresh on the right.
They vary quite a bit in color, don’t they?
Here’s where my husband and I did another blind taste test, tasting the raw pumpkin pie filling (sweetened up this time).
Blind Taste Test #2 Notes:
- This stuff tastes so much better with all the ingredients mixed in!
- It is now painfully obvious which one is the canned and which one is the fresh, even though my eyes are closed and I don’t know which is which. There is a weird flavor with the canned pumpkin that now that I notice it, is pretty off-putting.
Here’s what they looked like after being baked. The colors aren’t as different anymore. If someone brought me the pie on the left, even though it’s not as bright of an orange, I would still know it’s pumpkin pie.
Finished product blind taste test #3:
- What’s most funny about this experiment is that going into it, I thought there would be a clear answer based only on taste. What I found is that the biggest difference is the texture.
- The canned pumpkin has a sort of cottage cheese/ricotta texture, whereas the fresh pumpkin has a more sweet potato-like, thicker, more velvety texture.
- I personally think the fresh pumpkin pie texture is better. My husband agrees.
- The canned pumpkin pie taste is seriously driving me crazy now. I’m not sure I can eat canned pumpkin again, because that canned pumpkin flavor is just so strong and unappetizing to me.
So tell me, have you compared canned and fresh pumpkin, side by side? Maybe it’s time to see what you prefer! Have fun and let me know which you like better =)
My Favorite Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
- 1 small pie pumpkin to yield 2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1 pie crust
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the pumpkin in half, scrape out the seeds with a melon baller, then bake on a sheet pan for about 1 hour until fork tender. Scoop out all the pumpkin from the skin, and puree in a food processor until smooth. Measure out two cups of pumpkin puree, and set aside for later. (By the way, if you wish to have a thicker, denser pumpkin pie, let the pumpkin puree strain in a colander lined with cheesecloth or a damp, thick paper towel for an hour or so, to remove some of the water from the pumpkin puree).
- Bump the oven heat up to 400, and place your pie crust in a standard 9-inch pie plate. Blind bake the pie crust for 20 minutes, and be sure to either prick the dough all over with a fork, or fill the pie crust with a piece of parchment weighted down with pie weights, to keep the crust from bubbling up as it bakes.
- While the crust parbakes, make the pumpkin pie filling. Place 2 cups of the pumpkin puree, heavy cream, sugar, cinnamon, salt, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, eggs, and egg yolks in a bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Remove the par baked crust from the oven, and turn the heat back down to 350. Place the pumpkin pie filling into the par baked pie crust and place it in the oven (yes, you are starting the pie out at an elevated oven temperature, that’s intentional), and bake the pie for 45-50 minutes (you know it’s done when you jiggle the pan, the center part of the pie jiggles, but doesn’t look liquidy). Let the pumpkin pie cool at room temperature for at least 2 hours before eating (this part is important). This will help set the texture of the pie and let the flavors develop a bit. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
146 Comments on “Fresh vs. Canned Pumpkin: I put them to the test!”
Thanks for the taste test! If I have a squash at home, I’ll roast it and use it, but when I’m in a pinch, I go canned. I usually buy organic and the color is more like your homemade puree – I think that’s really the way to go for a fresher pumpkin taste if you need to go canned. I’ve even found the consistency different than regular canned.
I wondered about this before, thanks for sharing.
Very interesting! Thank you for taking the time to compare. I will try this myself very soon.
Fabulous comparison post! Ive read from others who have made their own that it’s not worth it – now, I beg to differ. Canned ‘pumpkin’ puree, i.e. Libbys and similar, tends to actually be a blend of squashes, not pumpkin. So it seems you prefer real pumpkin to canned squash…I think if I had the choice, I’d agree. I need to roast my own now!
Pumpkins are squash!
Joanne, I discovered baking with fresh pumpkin many years ago when my old boss’ wife made pumpkin muffins. My boss asked us if we could tell what type of muffin it was. We couldn’t tell because all of us was used to using pumpkin out of a can and not fresh! What a difference in taste. Since then, I have always bought a fresh pumpkin during this time of year and cooked it up to use in my baking. I actually cook up my pumpkin meat in a small amount of water on the stove. Yes, it does absorb much water but I let it drain as much as possible before using.
This is great! I went to a restaurant the other day and ordered their pumpkin pie for dessert which started a whole debate on canned pumpkin vs fresh pumpkin with my friends. Through you’re research, I think we have a clear winner.
I’ve never done a side by side comparison of the two, but I always use canned pumpkin for baked goods and I use real pumpkins for pumpkin pie. I love that you tested them.
Love that you did this side by side comparison. Truthfully, I always used canned because I love the health benefits of pumpkin and use it all year round BUT it is good to know that fresh is best at the end of the dya.
I have never actually roasted a pumpkin. I might have to convince y mom to do it this year for Thanksgiving.
My mother-in-law made a fresh pumpkin pumpkin pie about 20 years ago and the texture was superb! Since it was the first time she used a fresh pumpkin, she peeled it before cooking. Therefore the color was more of a custard pie and was yellow. Every since, I have used fresh pumpkin, cooked with the skins, then peeled, to make my Thanksgiving desserts. One has to plan ahead, since pumpkins usually can’t be found by November 1st. I have roasted and steamed on the stove & prefer to the stovetop method. Of course, straining in a colander is necessary. I allow the pumpkin to cool while setting in the colander before peeling.
Oh you’re lucky her pie was good. My MIL also used fresh pumpkin but the pie was horrid, stringy watery and tasteless. I think I took one bite the first time and never again. I know she just used the jack o lantern pumpkins and I would not doubt if she had cooked up the carved pumpkin post Halloween and used that.
I have always used jack-o-lantern pumpkins with great results. In fact I have sold up to 50 pumpkin pies in a season using them. Of course, they were never used for actual jack-o-lanterns. She may not have pureed it correctly, or drained enough liquid out of it.
I have also used jack-o-lantern pumpkins, too. Having not tasted side-by-side to a sugar pumpkin, I don’t notice a difference. Although, now that my kids are grown, I usually don’t buy bug pumpkins anymore, so I just buy the sugar pumpkins.
Yes I think she just used a potato masher and definitely did not do the draining off of the extra liquid. I also cook up whatever shows up in the garden. My pumpkins all come from volunteers, from what ever seeds ended up back in the garden from compost etc. My husband is sure we have a hybrid pumpkin-zucchini…it is bright orange but very long with a rounded end. We didn’t try carving, just laid it out on the step as it could not stand.
Oh, she did have a food processor, but never used it.
I have used both for many years I found the white pumpkins were sweeter and had a richer color. I use to make loaves and loaves of pumpkin bread from fresh pumpkin. Everyone loved the bread. Never told my secret ingredient was the fresh pumpkin.
Although this does sound like a lot of work I am still going to give it a try. I think fresh is always better then canned.
Thank you again for a wonderful recipe.
One hint when using fresh pumpkin…let it sit in a strainer over a bowl for a few hours before adding to a recipe. Fresh pumpkin has a much higher water content than canned…and as a result, some recipes can be runny, or not “set” properly when you use it unstrained. It takes a little bit of planning ahead…but the results are DEFINITELY worth it!
Karen, I love that tip, thanks for sharing! I would love a thicker and denser pumpkin pie =)
I was just coming back to add this comment 🙂 (I couldn’t believe I forgot to mention this!) I usually drain it after I puree it and before I freeze it.
(And if you really want to help push the water out, put a plate on top of the pumpkin in the strainer and then set a can of something on top of the plate.)
I actually can’t stand canned pumpkin. It has a metallic canned flavor to me. I recently canned a whole bunch of fresh pumpkin and that’s what I’ll be using for a long time!
Glad to hear I’m not the only one! That’s smart to can a bunch all at once.
Actually canning pumpkin is not the safest. You can pressure can cubed pumpkin but reputable canning books warn against canning mashed or pureed pumpkin . Freezing is the recommended method. I would not go with recipes off the internet unless from someplace like Ball. Check with your county extension agent for good advice.
In case you are wondering about my answer in the context of store bought canned pumpkin that is canned at higher steam and temp pressure than we can achieve at home, so is safe.
I make fresh pumpkin every year (I usually buy at least three sugar pumpkins and freeze the results in 2-cup portions) for pies and breads at Thanksgiving. I’ve never done a side-by-side test.
And I don’t have a problem with the lack of sweetness, but maybe because I make a lot of squash at this time of year. To me, it tastes so much better…so much more “pumpkin-y” than the canned stuff.
BTW, you can add some spices while roasting (like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, mace)…just sprinkle them over the top. They bake in and the pumpkin tastes even better 🙂 (I usually make it both ways, mostly because I forget to spice the first pumpkin.)
Hi Char, My favorite squash, buttercup, is very sweet on its own, so I was just surprised that the fresh pumpkin wasn’t the same way. I find sweet dumpling to be very sweet also. Love your idea of adding the spices during roasting! Thanks!
I have been pondering this as well since I am getting pumpkins in my CSA winter share. Thanks for doing the taste test! I will use fresh pumpkin this year.
How fun! I need to find a CSA!