Canned Pumpkin

Canned pumpkin is cooked squash in a can, nothing else, and one can holds more vitamin A than a week of most stored foods along with fiber and a little iron. It keeps 2 to 5 years at full quality stored cool. It's on this site because it's cheap after every November, children eat it, and it goes into far more than pie.

Pure pumpkin, where the only ingredient is pumpkin. Pumpkin pie filling is sweetened and spiced and is a dessert mix, not a vegetable. The 15 ounce can is the useful size; the 29 ounce can is for the pie. Buy a case in December when stores clear the holiday stock.

Cool, dry, dark and off the floor, between 50 and 70°F if you can manage it; twenty degrees cooler, 70 down to 50°F, roughly doubles how long the contents stay at full quality. Never let cans freeze (the seams can fail) and never store them over a furnace, in a garage or in a vehicle. Rotate first in, first out, with the buy date written on the lid. A dented can is fine if the dent is small and not on a seam; a deep dent, a dent on a seam, rust that pits the metal, or any bulge means the can goes unopened.

Look before you open: bulging ends, a leak, rust that has eaten into the metal, or a seam dent. Listen and look as you open: spurting liquid, a hiss outward, cloudy liquid where it should be clear, foam, or a foul smell. Any of those and the whole can goes, unopened if possible, into the trash where nothing can get at it, because the thing you are guarding against is botulism, which has no taste and no cure outside a hospital. A can past its date with a sound seal and a clean smell on opening is food.

An opened can of pumpkin molds within days in the fridge if it is left in the can; move it to a covered container, and freeze what will not be used in a week.

A 15 ounce can is about 140 calories and more than twice a day's vitamin A. Stir it into oatmeal, soup and chili, where it thickens and disappears; mix it into pancake and quick-bread batter in place of some of the fat; make a pumpkin soup with broth and canned milk; feed a spoonful to a dog with an upset stomach, which is the other reason a can is in the pantry. Pie needs eggs and milk, which the powdered versions supply.

Shelf-stable and ready. Opened pumpkin spoils faster than most cans at room temperature, so open it for a pot that will use the whole can.

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.