Gramma (pumpkin)

A few days ago, I was given a huge gramma by a farmer friend of mine. Gramma is a type of pumpkin that is sweet and very moist. It is generally cooked as a dessert and is quite old fashioned. My mother used to cook gramma pies when I was young but saved the mashed gramma for me to eat as I preferred it sans pastry.

I am assuming that gramma is the type of pumpkin that Americans use for pumpkin pies and I have heard of pumpkin pie spice but I have never seen it in the shop.

Okay, so the first thing I did was to cut this huge monster in half - well DO cut it into almost halves - and we gave the slightly smaller half to his parents. His mum cut it into thirds and gave two thirds away to friends, cooked some and still had more of the huge gramma left over!

This is how I cooked it: Peel the gramma and roughly chopped it's flesh. Put it in a pot and cover with water, add a pinch of salt and boil or simmer until tender. Drain as much water a possible and then mash well with a potato masher. It will develop more water as it sits, and you can pour that off.

After it was cooked (I had to cook it in two batches in my large stock pot) I scooped out about four cups of hot mashed gramma into another bowl. I added a handful of sultanas, three tablespoons of sugar (or to taste), juice of a lemon and about a tablespoon of cinnamon powder. I mixed it well and tasted to see if it needed more lemon, cinnamon or sugar. It should be just slightly tart but not enough to taste the lemon juice.


I packed the remainder of the mashed gramma in freezer bags in two cup portions and when it was cool enough, I sealed the bags and put them in the freezer for a later date.

The farmer who gave me the gramma said that if I freeze the cooked flesh and thaw it out later, it will lose a fair bit of moisture and I will have a more compact pumpkin flesh. Just right for future recipes that call for mashed pumpkin... :)