Cooking pumpkins

My husband and I were given an organic pumpkin the other day that's quite large -- the sort you'd ordinarily carve for a jack-o-lantern. I know these tend to be less suitable for eating than the smaller baking pumpkins, but is it really ill-advised to cook/eat them or just a matter of preference?

It's just such a sizable pumpkin that I hate to just carve it, watch it rot, then throw it away . . . but if it's probable that nothing delicious could come from such a fruit, I'll happily carve it, roast the seeds, and call it a day.

Thanks in advance for your advice . . .

Pumpkin can either be steamed, stewed or roasted.

For roasting, cut it in half stem to tail, scoop out the icky innards (for later seed roasting), and put open-side down on baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about an hour, test to see if the flesh is tender. Scoop from the skin, and put through a food mill to get rid of the biggest strings. This has the advantage of concentrating flavors and not having to peel it beforehand, but results in less-shapely pieces. Good for pies, soups, etc.

Steaming and stewing you'll want to cut the skin off first (sharp knife is better than a peeler), cut into chunks from 1/2" dice to 2". It shouldn't take more time to cook than other hard veggies such as potatoes or carrots in such preparations. Smaller will cook faster, of course.

i'd suggest cutting off a little piece and microwaving it and tasting it before you go through all the trouble. I've tried cooking a few big ones and they were practically inedible.

Yes, you can eat this kind of pumpkin. It may be stringier than a so-called sugar pumpkin or pie pumpkin.

Or you could use it to make Carbonada Criolla (Argentine Tzimmes)