Sign up ×  It's the season for pumpkins and I was wondering if
there is a way to tell if a pumpkin was going to taste good
enough to cook with. I guess this is a similar situation as with
a watermelon - you can't really cut it open to check if it will
taste good.  share|improve this question  3 Answers 3  Many of
the varieties of pumpkin sold in US stores in the fall are
decorative -- they're grown for their appearance and size, not
for cooking with.  Ask for 'sugar pumpkins' or 'pie pumpkins' at
your grocery store, farm stand, or farmer's market, and you
should be able to find them -- they tend to be smaller, more
squat than round (although, some farmers markets might have
other varieties of "pie" pumpkins).  If you can't find them --
I'd go with acorn squash, instead of using one of the decorative
pumpkins.  share|improve this answer +1 for 'sugar pumpkins' – 
Bob Sep 10 '10 at 15:40  I think you're right that they're
similar to a watermelon in that there's truly no definitive way
to tell if they're ripe an