Pickled Pumpkin Preserve

It’s Halloween and Pumpkin time. Seeing the photographs of carved pumpkins on a friend’s blog reminded me of my grandfather’s Pickled Pumpkin Preserve. I used to wonder how a pumpkin could be transformed into this delicious accompaniment to cooked meals, but was too young to think of asking for the recipe (he died when I was 12). I have searched for the recipe for years, and now, at last – here’s something akin to the recipe Morfar (Grandad) used to make, if my memory serves me right.

My sister tells me that it was at our other grandparents’ we had pickled pumpkin preserve, and she may well be right. I know Morfar grew pumpkins, and seem to remember eating the preserve with steamed cod at their flat in Oslo, while it was served with cooked ‘gravy’ meals and sometimes used in place of cranberry sauce at our other grandparents’ house. The jury remains out – but the memory of the flavour remains – and I suddenly want some! With oven baked salmon, please.




Pickled Pumpkin Preserve

1 kg (2.2 lb) Pumpkin flesh, cut into pieces 2.5cm cubes (1”cubes)
400ml (15 fl oz) spirit (clear) vinegar
750 g (ca ¾ lb) sugar
50g (2 oz) whole ginger

Cut pumpkin in half and remove all seeds and scrape back to the flesh. Cut into smaller segments, peel carefully and cut into cubes. Peel ginger and chop into a few pieces. This can be removed when the preserve is done.
Bring vinegar, sugar and ginger to the boil and add pumpkin cubes. Simmer till the pumpkin pieces are tender and shiny. Ladle pumpkin into sterilised jars, simmer the vinegar and sugar for another 10-15 minutes, until the mixture thickens. Pour over pumpkin, cool and seal.

How long can I keep it before eating it, I wonder? I reckon Christmas time might be good.

Tip: Pickled Pumpkin Preserve should be kept in a cool, dark place.

Did you know that… the original name for pumpkin was the Greek word ‘pepon’, which means large melon? It then mutated to ‘pompon (French) and ‘pumpion’ (English), before the American colonists changed ‘pumpion’ to ‘pumpkin’. Perhaps it was just the matter of illegible handwriting!

When Shakespeare referred to ‘pumpion’ in ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’, he was referring to ‘pumpkin’ – but you all knew that, didn’t you?

But did you know that... Native Americans dried strips of pumpkin and then wove the strips into mats?

And then of course, when the tradition of Jack-o-Lanterns were brought over to America, the colonists found the native pumpkin to be ideal for making their own version.
The tradition began in Ireland, I believe.