CATEGORY

Canned Pumpkin

2007 ChefsBest Certified Award Winner

Libby’s

What Makes a Great Canned Pumpkin?

If you like the flavor of pumpkin, canned pumpkin can take you far beyond pumpkin pie. In addition to the Thanksgiving favorite, use canned pumpkin throughout the year to make muffins, cookies and, of course, pumpkin soup. Pumpkin also has high levels of beta-carotene, making it not only a rich ingredient in many savory and sweet recipes, but a nutritional one as well.

Our chefs define high-quality canned pumpkin as appearing coarse and pureed with a color that ranges from light to dark orange. Canned pumpkin will have a moderate aroma—not too strong—with a somewhat complex character. Earthy, vegetal, carotene and squash notes may add to the character’s complexity, but there should be no aroma off notes, including metallic notes from the packaging.

Canned pumpkin is in taste balance when low levels of sourness and bitterness are the leading basic tastes. Lower sweetness will follow at levels just high enough to balance the overall product and round out the other basic tastes.

In the flavor profile for high-quality canned pumpkin, bold pumpkin flavor will lead. The flavor character will be moderately complex and it should reflect the aroma’s earthy, vegetal, carotene and squash aroma notes. Flavor off notes should not be detected.

Good canned pumpkin should have low astringency, meaning it shouldn’t make the mouth pucker too much.

When canned pumpkin is used to make a pumpkin pie, the pie should be firm without any of the pumpkin filling oozing out the sides. Also, the pumpkin flavor should make a much stronger impression in a pie than when tasted plain, as the warm spices and sweeteners should shine through and enhance the experience.

Product Category Definition

The category judged was defined as canned pumpkin for the consumer market, not including other canned vegetables or purees.

Other Leading Brands:

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