Pumpkin pie is a holiday favorite. Would you like it as much if you knew you were eating squash pie? It turns out most canned pumpkin is actually—gasp!—squash. Manufacturers make “pumpkin” puree from one or more kinds of winter squashes such as butternut, Hubbard and Boston marrow, which are less stringy, sweeter and have better color than pumpkin.
Before crying fraud, it’s important to know there’s a rather fuzzy distinction between pumpkin and squash. They are in the same genetic family, with the principle difference being in the stem. Pumpkins stems are stiff and spiky. All pumpkins are squash, but not all squash are pumpkins.
Libby, which produces 50 million pie’s worth of canned pumpkin and is responsible for 85 percent of the canned pumpkin globally, has its own proprietary variant, called Dickinson Select 12, which much more resembles butternut than the traditional jack-o-lantern Halloween pumpkin.
Here’s another interesting fact: 90 percent of all pumpkins grown in the United States are raised within a 90-mile radius of Peoria, Illinois. Libby’s processing plant and cannery are located smack in the middle of pumpkin country, in the town of Morton. The company contracts with independent farmers to grow pumpkins on about eight square miles of land, providing them with patented seeds available to no other growers.
Illinois’ second largest producer of canned pumpkin, Seneca Foods, supplies many of the private label supermarket brands and is located just down the road. But proximity hasn’t led to an identical product.
Libby’s canned pumpkin is thicker than other brands with a lower moisture content. It could be Libby’s special variety has less moisture to start with or it may be the way the squash is processed.
Still, if you have a favorite brand, food experts recommend sticking with it, especially for a tried-and-true recipe. The formula for the perfect pie filling changes with the consistency of the puree. Change brands and you’ll probably also have to change the number of eggs or liquid you add.
But whatever recipe you use, when Thanksgiving dinner conversation takes a dive into an uncomfortable discussion about politics, you can always change the subject by blurting out, "Hey, did you know this isn't pumpkin pie? It’s actually Dickinson pie!"
This first appeared in the Wenatchee World.
Before crying fraud, it’s important to know there’s a rather fuzzy distinction between pumpkin and squash. They are in the same genetic family, with the principle difference being in the stem. Pumpkins stems are stiff and spiky. All pumpkins are squash, but not all squash are pumpkins.
Libby, which produces 50 million pie’s worth of canned pumpkin and is responsible for 85 percent of the canned pumpkin globally, has its own proprietary variant, called Dickinson Select 12, which much more resembles butternut than the traditional jack-o-lantern Halloween pumpkin.
Here’s another interesting fact: 90 percent of all pumpkins grown in the United States are raised within a 90-mile radius of Peoria, Illinois. Libby’s processing plant and cannery are located smack in the middle of pumpkin country, in the town of Morton. The company contracts with independent farmers to grow pumpkins on about eight square miles of land, providing them with patented seeds available to no other growers.
Illinois’ second largest producer of canned pumpkin, Seneca Foods, supplies many of the private label supermarket brands and is located just down the road. But proximity hasn’t led to an identical product.
Libby’s canned pumpkin is thicker than other brands with a lower moisture content. It could be Libby’s special variety has less moisture to start with or it may be the way the squash is processed.
Still, if you have a favorite brand, food experts recommend sticking with it, especially for a tried-and-true recipe. The formula for the perfect pie filling changes with the consistency of the puree. Change brands and you’ll probably also have to change the number of eggs or liquid you add.
But whatever recipe you use, when Thanksgiving dinner conversation takes a dive into an uncomfortable discussion about politics, you can always change the subject by blurting out, "Hey, did you know this isn't pumpkin pie? It’s actually Dickinson pie!"
This first appeared in the Wenatchee World.
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