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!”
I totally agree. We grew pumpkins on a large scale for a few years and I started making my own puree. Although most of the time I do not use a pie pumpkin, just a small Carver, I have used both and cannot tell the difference. I LOVE it and so does my husband. The first year I made a pie with fresh puree my husband was sure that it would be awful so I made one with canned and one with fresh, he definitely liked the fresh better! I don’t ever plan on using canned pumpkin again.
I find roasting in the oven or cooking canned pumpkin on the stove top really helps with the texture as well as giving it a better flavor.
Pumpkin pie has always been my favorite pie since I was a kid and my mom always made it with fresh pumpkin. as I got older I started hating the pie and thought my tastes had changed but nope it was canned stuff. Once it was being made with real pumpkin again it is also my favorite once again. There truly is a huge difference.
I cooked my pie pumpkin in the instant pot. Was very quick. When doing that you need to drain because there is far mor liquid. But very easy
I tried fresh last year for my Thanksgiving pies and my family raved about them. Definitely the way to go. I have wondered why the taste of canned is so much stronger than fresh, and I see in am earlier comment that the peel may be included in the canned. I suppose that could be it.
Awesome comparison. I just finished putting up a 52 pound Cinderella pumpkin into freezer bags. Homegrown pumpkin is so much better than canned pumpkin. But different pumpkins will taste differently. Some pumpkins are sweeter than other. Some are redder or more orange. But the best pumpkin is the one you grow yourself.
I absolutely loved your post! I have done pretty much the same thing with my husband. I also loved your recipe. Interesting about using eggs and egg yolks. I plan to give that a try! Your recipe is very similar to mine but I use 3-4 cups of fresh pumpkin and use sweetened condensed milk. Anyway, thank you so much! Very fun and interesting to read. Happy baking!
I prefer baking with fresh purée over canned hands down! There is great pride in knowing I’m serving something handmade and usually homegrown.
I once read carefully thru how the pumpkin factories make the canned stuff. No where did it say they PEEL the pumpkins (or squash)! So, I think the rind is ground up with the flesh.
Hi Susan, canned pumpkin is not real pumpkin. Is actually a mix of different squashes and in some occasions apples like Golden Delicious. Real pumpkin puree is considered too watery, stringy, and more difficult to cook. The FDA allows commercial mixed squash puree to be sold as pumpkin puree and that leads to the confusion. That is why I am not surprise that the pies look and taste differently. A lot of the stuff we eat can be very misleading to us the consumers because we no longer live the old lifestyle of growing and cooking our own foods. I just recently realized pumpkin flavored foods items (lattes, yogurts, ice cream) may not really have any pumpkin in it just the traditional spices used in making the pie (Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Allspice, cloves). Personally, I will use real pumpkin when I am free to spend more time in cooking. In the meantime, I will use canned.
Here is an attached link that gives further info on the subject:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/canned-pumpkin-isn%e2%80%99t-actually-pumpkin/ar-BBPPGVQ?ocid=ientp
This is an old rumor that has been around for years. True, the pumpkins aren’t the same as what you buy for carving, but they’re still pumpkin. The writer of the article must have stumbled upon a chain email from two years ago. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/canned-pumpkin-isnt-actually-pumpkin/
Joanne– I noticed you said the texture of the fresh pumpkin pie is closer to that of a fresh sweet potato pie. Is the taste of the fresh pumpkin pie closer to that of a sweet potato pie? I was asked to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I was going to do a fresh version of pumpkin and sweet potato, but am now wondering if the fresh versions of each are going to be too similar. Thanks!
Hi Susan, the textures and flavors are still pretty different to me, but they’re not as different as doing sweet potato and an apple pie, if that makes sense. There are similarities, but there are noticeable differences too. So, your call ultimately, I think it depends on expectations. Have a happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this experiment and answering my burning question that no one else could answer. I think I will trust your opinion and use fresh pumpkin from now on.
I still use canned pumpkin however I prefer fresh. I’m sure you already know this, but it freezes well! I know thawing isn’t as easy as opening a can, but it sure beats roasting, cooling, scraping, and puréing! I do a few pumpkins and lay them flat in freezer bags. Another hint…butternut squash has a VERY similar taste and is interchangeable with pumpkin in recipes. Try that next!
Thanks for sharing!
I have never pre-baked my crust when I made my pumpkin pie, won’t the crust get over done?
Hi Judy, it’s a personal preference. Feel free not to parbake if that’s what you usually do.
I’m a culinary teacher and when we make pumpkin oie I always have my student go through the work of roasting and puree their own pumpkin.
The results are drastic and it is always interesting to see my students reaction. They are amazed at the difference. Even those who claim they hate pumpkin pie say it is the best pumpkin pie they have ever tasted.
Hi Peter, that sounds so fun to see those reactions. I remember how astounded I was when I tasted the difference!
Interesting finding! 🙂
Not gonna comment on the comparison of those two as canned pumpkin puree isn’t available at all this part of the world where I live, but I eat fresh pumpkin A LOT. Roasted, boiled, sauteed.. whatever.
I have a major sweet tooth with a capital S and T but I’m surprised you find the puree alone isn’t sweet at all. Pumpkin is my guilt-free way of snacking, when I NEED something sweet and I’m mindful enough not to binge on candies lol.
I think the fresh pumpkins vary a lot, because I’ve had ones since that have a sweet flavor to them. But the one I tried for this post, bleh! haha.
Yeah that’s probably the case lol…
I’ve never had canned pumpkin and I don’t want to. Anything that I have had canned has a taste of can. I always prefer to make fresh from scratch.
Along those lines, I recently showed my young grandson how to make peanut butter at home. He was very impressed.
A few days before I had same kid and his sister for the night and the following day. We made homemade sausage rolls for lunch. They both volunteered that they were much better than anything bought.
This same little boy knows how to make bread and pizza and has commented on the similarity of the dough. He loves making breadsticks
Hi Diane, I love that you are showing others that homemade is more delicious. I agree with you!