Cooking and Freezing Winter Squash and Pumpkin
Notes: Winter squash (Blue Hubbard) and pumpkins are so large that they encourage average cooks to reach for the can. Yet, it's tough to find canned or frozen winter squash. That's unfortunate, because it is incredibly sweet and flavorful. This cook solves the dilemma by cooking one half for Thanksgiving and freezing the remaining half for Christmas or Easter. You can boil or steam chunks but peeling the squash first is too difficult. Both my canning books, Ball Blue Book and Sunset, call for pureeing them first, then freezing. Extension services have instructions for packing baked slices in a sugar syrup. All use a food mill, but my food mill leaves 3/4 of the pulp un-processed. I use the cutting knife of a food processor -- much easier with better results!
One medium-sized butternut squash yields about 4 cups of pulp and about 2
quarts of slices for freezing. Martha Stewart leaves seeds in while baking to improve
flavor.
1 medium-sized butternut squash or pumpkin
for packing in syrup: 1 1/2 cps water to 1 cp sugar and 1 T lemon juice (there
should be enough syrup to cover the vegetable slices)
1. Wash and cut into halves lenghthwise.
2. Scoop out seeds and stringy membrane , or leave in and scrape out after baked.
3. Place squash cut side own in shallow baking dish (we used a cookie sheet with a rim).
4. Add 1/4" water and bake at 350 - 375 degrees. Remove the half for freezing when it
is just crisp-tender. Leave other half in till fork-tender, but not mushy.
5. Remove from oven and cool. Scoop out pulp from one half. Process with cutting knife in
food processor only until lightly pureed. Refrigerate till needed.
6. Cut other half into manageable sections and peel each section. Cut into 1/2"
slices and store in freezer bag, with or without syrup.