Tuesday 13 December 2011

Tinned pumpkin at Waitrose!!!

Look what I have found at Waitrose in London: tinned (canned) pumpkin for pie filling! I bought both existing cans off the shelf, and their "best before" date is October 2014, which means I can make pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving for the next two years!

Libby's is a Nestlé brand, sold throughout the United States and imported and distributed to England by GFT Retail (UK) Ltd. Their address is PO Box 477, Walton on Thames, KT12 5XE, but if you want to "correspond", they guide you to Nestlé's Consumer Services at PO Box 207, York YO91 1XY. Perhaps if the tinned pumpkin isn't sold in your area, you could convince one of these companies to send you a care package.

Since the English traditionally eat turkey at Christmas (not having anything to be thankful for in November), perhaps pumpkin pie could be instituted as a third choice dessert alongside the cloying Christmas pudding and Christmas cake (heavy with dried fruit, icing or sauce and liquor). For those who don't like fruitcake, the pie might be a light option.

The can label has the pie recipe modified for English measures and oven temperatures. Inside the label are three more recipes: for pecan pumpkin sauce, good morning pumpkin pancakes, and pumpkin apple streusel muffins. Perhaps worth experimenting...but only if you have a good supply of pumpkin! See http://gleeb-livinginengland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/make-pumpkin-pie.html

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hiya. I know this post is a year old, but would you please let me know at which Waitrose in London you found tinned pumkin? You may email the answer to
battenbergs at hotmail dot co dot uk

Thank you!

gleeb said...

I made two pumpkin pies yesterday with the recipe on one can: British sweet pie crust (available at Tesco in their baking section) tins are much smaller than the recipe called for. But the contents split perfectly in two. The pies never solidified completely in the center even after 50 minutes: the knives came out sticky, but after cooling everything coalesced and the pies were universally acclaimed (by 11 people at my party). It is so dead easy to make these things. Everyone should try! Happy Halloween!
PS don't try making your own pumpkin mash from store pumpkins: they are the wrong variety; you need baking pumpkins.