Why bake pumpkin?

[brewwitch]

Hi

I have noted that most everyone bakes their pumpkin first.
Why don't people boil it and use the pumpkin
and the water in which it was boiled?


I would think that Keeping the pumpkin water would allow you to keep sugars.. they are just more dilute...

but when you add your baked pumpkin to water it will then be diluted as well...

so why do most people bake their pumpkin?

(oh on a side note... I have heard that butternut squash works even better...
)

[JimG]

From what I read baking the pumkin brings more flavor to the mix. I tried a pumkin ale the other evening and the only thing I could taste was the spice, all-spice in particular. The pumkin certainly added color but no taste. Butternut squash sounds like a good thing to try!

[JayShaw91]

All I got was color from what I can tell when I did my pumpkin ale. It's a great orange color, but was it worth the stuck sparge? Meh... I don't think so.

Baking the pumpkin caramelizes some sugars. So you *may* get more flavor. I can't confirm or deny that.

[Mill Rat]

Pumpkin is a very bland squash. That's why there's all those spices in the pie, it'd be insipid otherwise. One way or another you have to break up the pumpkin flesh so the amylaze enzymes can get in there to break down the starches. If you don't bake it you'll have to run it though a grinder or food processor.

[brewwitch]

Yeah.

I'm boiling it & then pureeing it.

I also baked some... I may put that in also. Who knows. It's all an experiment
but hopefully one with some "reason" to it!