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Whenever I make pumpkin soup I always find it to be way too sour and I end up adding a Tbsp of brown sugar to correct. Are Pumpkins naturally tart, or is there a reason why this is happening? Are there other methods to correct this aside from adding sugar?

My method is to roast the pumpkin and then add to chicken stock with variety of spices (cayenne, salt, pepper, turmeric, cumin, etc.), and add cream or coconut milk to thicken.

Cary Bondoc
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Manako
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    Do you want to go into detail on your roasting technique? I would assume you cut in half, clean out, roast face down in water at ~350 until a fork slides in/out of the skin easily. – mfg Dec 14 '10 at 17:29
  • :) assumption correct, that is exactly what i did. – Manako Jan 13 '11 at 17:40

3 Answers3

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Hmm. I would say that pumpkins maybe have a slight bit of acidity, but I would never think of them as distinctly sour. I suppose it could be the variety you are using. Also, taste your stock by itself to make sure it isn't contributing an unwanted sour note. All of that said, it may just be one of those expectation things. We are used to pumpkin in a sweet context, and your brain wants that little bit of sugar there to match the template, so it seems sour without it.

If you really want to test this out further, try making a small batch of the same recipe with no spices and plain water to see if it is truly the pumpkin that seems sour to you.

Michael Natkin
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    @ Varieties: I have read that carving pumpkins have a bitter taste; the medium sized ones for baking are the only ones I have experience cooking. – mfg Dec 14 '10 at 17:31
  • These were specifically pie pumpkins, I had leftover from making a pie. – Manako Dec 15 '10 at 15:10
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I think it could be, because of the rosting of the pumpkin. I use the raw pumpkin cut into pieces. Add water and boil.

If you don't roast your pumpkin before cooking soup out of it, I expect it won't turn sour on you...

froeschli
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Possibly because you are adding the cream and then leaving the soup out of the fridge, this cream will turn sour; causing soup to go sour.

Zoe
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