Can you eat carving pumpkins?

Question

I have some very small pumpkins and I don't know if they are cooking pumpkins or carving pumpkins. Can you cook and eat carving pumpkins?

Answer 1

Usually smaller pumpkins are "sweet" pumpkins and are meant for pie and such. However, you can cook with any pumpkin, the flavor just isn't as good / sweet in the carving pumpkins.

Answer 2

Virtually any pumpkin can be carved, though the really small decorative pumpkins are extremely difficult to carve due to the terribly small carving area and require a tea candle or smaller to light. Bigger than a decorative pumpkin will produce enough "meat" to be eaten.

Answer 3

My understanding is that they're slightly different gourds, and only cooking pumpkins are tasty.

If your pumpkins are small enough that you don't know whether they're cooking or just small carving pumpkins, you could try roasting or otherwise cooking them and see how they turn out. Worst case scenario, not very good, which is why we keep veggies in the freezer, right?

Answer 4

I use mine to make pumpkin ravioli. After carving, I refrigerate the flesh for later.