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I was wondering if cooking meat inside pumpkin in oven would lead to a kore tasty meat or it will only be dry and tasteless.

I still haven't tried it, but watching a video that made octopus inside a pumpkin, brought me up with the idea of repalcing red meat inside. which at first I know , that it needs to be pre-cooked. But then, I was thinking how dry would it come out of the oven? Should I choose a specific type of pumpkin ? any add ins to make more moisture ?

FabioSpaghetti
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2 Answers2

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It won't be dry unless you overcook it. The pumpkin flesh will give off steam and keep the meat moist.

The meat will pick up some pumpkin taste from the pumpkin, but it won't brown. So you're trading the flavor of browned meat for the flavor of pumpkin.

If you pre-cook the meat, you can get the flavor of browned meat along with the flavor of pumpkin. As Max pointed out, the pumpkin may not survive the long cooking time required by starting with raw meat, so using pre-cooked meat is probably a good idea anyway.

Here's a recipe that uses ground beef, which is first sauteed with onions and green peppers, then tomato sauce and spices added. The pumpkin is also partially-cooked. Then the pre-cooked meat/sauce mixture is stuffed inside the pre-cooked pumpkin, and the whole thing is baked for another hour.

The final cooking presumably allows the flavors to blend and also finishes cooking the pumpkin. The moisture from the pumpkin should prevent the already cooked meat from getting dry and overcooked.

csk
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    “Dryness” in meat is not a result of not having enough water. Meat already has plenty of moisture, and for that matter it is entirely possible to produce dry meat by steaming it. – Sneftel Aug 24 '20 at 18:03
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    For sure. I’d wager most of us have had dry, chalky, overcooked boiled chicken once or twice. – Preston Aug 24 '20 at 20:20
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IMO, if you start from raw ingredients, the pumpkin will be overcooked and start breaking apart before the meat gets cooked.

There are recipes that start with raw ingredients but not really meat (disclaimer, I've not searched long... )

I would suggest cook the meat before (like a stew ?); cool down the preparation and just then stuff the pumpkin with the preparation and bake until the pumpkin is tender.

Max
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  • Food Wishes recipe browns the meat first, but otherwise fully cooks it in the pumpkin. https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2018/10/pig-in-pumpkin-trick-and-treat.html?m=1 – Spagirl Aug 25 '20 at 08:27