Have always dry roasted washed sugar pumpkins whole on baking sheets. Love the new weird looking hybrids like those "knobby" greenish blue ones for decorative displays, then cooking them. Because sugar pumpkins cost a lot more here, they're hardly worth the work compared to the cost of canned. But the decorative value helps and the flavor is divinely better. However, my garden assistant swears by boiling up jack-a-lanterns November 1st for his famous muffins. He insists they taste as sweet. (We're having a pumpkin cook-off this year.) Am going to try this method, since I've never been certain I could then re-roast the seeds and have them cook correctly. We do get a lot of liquid out of the mash. Perhaps roasting whole retains liquid? To the person who wondered if they would explode in the oven: well, they haven't yet. But it is difficult to check for done-ness. I know they are done, though, if they implode slightly: sugar pumpkins often have a larger stem, which sinks into the pumpkin!

• Reply