The Canned Pumpkin You Buy Isn't What You Think It Is
Defining what canned pumpkin is feels akin to one of those memes going around Facebook. You know the ones — they offer up a photo featuring a nice display of bright orange pumpkins adorning someone's front porch on a fall day with the words — "What you think pumpkins are" — scribbled on the bottom. The next slide of the meme shows a less impressive, slick-skinned gourdy squash with the words — "What pumpkins actually are" — written underneath. Herein lies the confusion about what you'll find inside a can labeled "canned pumpkin." What we know of as canned pumpkin can be either pumpkin and squash and will be called one or the other, depending who you talk to.
A good portion of the confusion arises from the actual definition of canned pumpkin versus canned squash — a definition that goes back to 1957 and was set forth by the USDA. Basically, the definition is an either/ or kind of thing. That is, canned pumpkin AND canned squash must come from fruit that is "golden" in flesh and sweet, per the USDA. There is more to the definition than those components, but those elements – golden, sweet fruits describe some varieties of both the pumpkin OR squash — represent the important points for why this is so confusing and why people think that canned pumpkin isn't actually canned pumpkin. The definition mashes up pumpkins and squash so that, at least for canning purposes, so it isn't any wonder that people feel confused.
Is it all just splitting pumpkin hairs?
Adding to the debate is the fact that a majority of the canned pumpkin in the U.S., around 80%, comes from the Libby's brand canned pumpkins, Libby's Special Seed, a unique pumpkin variety which is derivative of Dickinson pumpkins. These smooth-skinned, tan-hued pumpkins look more like squash than they do the brilliant orange pumpkins found on porches around Halloween. They are special to Libby's, and it's generally agreed that, as far as flavor goes, it's better that they're not your average Halloween variety of pumpkin. The former tends to be made of equal parts pulpy strings and water whereas the latter produce the kind of creamy pumpkin puree that our holiday pumpkin pies cry out for.
The Dickinson pumpkin owes its texture and appearance to the fact that it belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family – a botanical family which calls melons and cucumbers distant cousins. The butternut squash is also in this family, putting the pumpkin in the squash/ pumpkin family. Your porch pumpkin comes from a different botanical family: Cucurbita pepo. Purists say that the latter is the only bonafide pumpkin variety there is, while others disagree. Cucurbitaceae family members get to be pumpkins, too.
But the disagreements are mute at the end of the day, thanks to the USDA definition. Whether the canned Dickinson-derived pumpkin is a squash or a pumpkin is irrelevant. They're one and the same as far as the USDA is concerned, even though they're technically not.