Pumpkins aren't just on everyone's lips at Halloween. They are deliciously preserved to make a tasty compote. Regardless of whether it's butternut, nutmeg or giant squash, they can all be excellently preserved.
How to can sweet and sour pumpkin?
Canning sweet and sour pumpkin can be done by cutting the peeled and seeded pumpkin into pieces, letting it steep in vinegar and water, cooking a stock of sugar, vinegar, lemon juice and spices, boiling the pumpkin pieces in it and sterilizing everything Jars filled for preserving in the oven or kettle.
How to preserve pumpkin
With a 4 kg pumpkin you can fill 4 mason jars of 1 liter each. In addition to the pumpkin, you will also need two to three pounds of sugar, 1/2 liter of vinegar, spices such as lemon, vanilla pod, cinnamon stick, cloves.
- Peel the pumpkin generously.
- Use a spoon to scrape out the hay and seeds.
- Cut the pumpkin flesh into bite-sized pieces and place them in a bowl.
- Pour 1/8 l each of water and vinegar over it and let the whole thing steep overnight.
- While the pumpkin is draining, prepare a stock. Take the remaining vinegar, 375 ml of water, the sugar, the juice of one lemon, vanilla pod and pulp, cinnamon sticks, cloves and possibly a piece of ginger and bring everything to the boil.
- Sterilize the preserving jars, lids and rubbers in boiling water or in the oven at 100 degrees for ten minutes.
- Put the pumpkin pieces in the vinegar-sugar stock and bring everything to the boil.
- Using a slotted spoon, fill the pumpkin into the glasses. The cooled broth is poured over it.
- The liquid should reach just below the rim of the glass, all pumpkin pieces must be covered.
- Seal the jars.
Wake in the oven
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the glasses in the drip pan and pour in enough water so that the glasses are 2 cm submerged in water. The glasses must not touch each other in the drip pan. After about an hour, the liquid in the glasses will begin to bubble. Turn off the oven and leave the jars in there for another half hour. Then take the glasses out and let them cool under a cloth.
Wake in the kettle
Put the glasses in the cauldron. They are not allowed to touch each other. Pour in enough water so that the glasses are half submerged. When boiling down, follow the kettle manufacturer's instructions. Normally you wake the pumpkins for an hour at 90 degrees. Here, too, the glasses remain in the kettle for some time and are only taken out when they are lukewarm and covered with a cloth to cool completely.
