Pumpkin is one of very few things i can eat without consequence. I love all winter squash. But pumpkin is the most popular by far. My record is 22 in one year. I didn’t eat all of them, but I did cook them. As usual, the work is in the prep. But a medium sized one can yield 6 cups easily.
Pumpkin is low acidity and not suitable for canning on it’s own. However, it will keep in the frige for 5 days and it freezes well. Unless I’m making a soup or stew, I prefer to roast them in the oven. Roasting removes a lot of the water and gives the best puree for baking.
Wash the beastie before putting it on any prep surfaces. I know how insidious sand is as a native Floridian. It has a supernatural ability to go to the absolute worst place.
Make the first cut is as close to the middle as you can get. You want each half to be fairly equal. Give it a good spin before you commit.
I have tried slicing the seed membrane off when I cut the peel. A spoon works better for me, though. I can scrape right down to the meat without loosing any.
The seeds have a lot of really good nutritients. I can’t eat them with the hulls and I’m not about to shell them. So I usually put them out for the critters. They will grow. But the quality of fruit you get from those seeds can be dubious.
It is much easier to remove the peel from a strip. Cut them narrow enough that there’s not too much slope on the outside.
Slice down on each strip, removing all of the tough outer skin. Check for slivers. It may not look like anything on the cutting board, but it becomes gargantuan when wedged between teeth.
For general daily use I stick with cubes. When I’m making pies, I’ll cut it into thinner slabs. Either way, cut a little bit larger than you think. There will be shrinkage in the oven.
Give it some salt and good olive oil. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Cubes take longer than the slabs. There should be a little body to it, not like a sweet potato. There should be very little to no resistence when you stab it with a fork.