How to Can Pumpkin the Safe Way (Cubed Method, USDA-Tested)

---

You Googled “can you can pumpkin puree,” didn’t you?

I did too, the year I ended up with more wheelbarrows of pumpkin than I knew what to do with.

My patch runs about 45 feet, but it outgrows me every October. I love to grow my own pumpkins. Connecticut Field for the grandkids to carve. New England Pie for actual eating. Jack Be Littles because, let’s be honest, they’re just too cute not to grow. Whatever else catches my eye come spring.

Pin it

By fall I’m measuring harvest in wheelbarrows — tomatoes, apples, pears, pumpkins, all of it. Nothing goes to waste here. Between the cattle, the chickens, and the horse, there’s always someone glad to eat what the garden doesn’t use.

But the garden’s job is to feed my family first. So canning pumpkin is a must for soup in January, pumpkin pie filling for the holiday pies, sitting on the shelf instead of me scrambling for a can at the store.

And the answer to “can I just can the puree” surprised and bummed me out. Because it’s a no, and it’s a no for a real reason, not a “USDA is just being cautious” reason.

You can still put pumpkin up in jars. You just do it a little differently than you’d guess.

Let’s get you a shelf of jars that are actually safe to eat next February.

However many pumpkins you end up with this year, here’s exactly what to do with the ones that don’t go on the porch or into a pie.

Wait — Can You Actually Can Pumpkin?

Short answer: yes. But not the way most of the internet tells you.

Pumpkin is a low acid food. That means a water bath canner, the kind you’d use for jam or pickles, will never get hot enough to make it shelf-stable. The only safe way is to use a pressure canner. No exceptions, no workarounds. If a recipe tells you to water bath can pumpkin in any form, close the tab.

And if you’re hoping to skip straight to puree, I get it, and I cover exactly why that’s a no.

What does exist is pumpkin canned in cubes. Tested. Safe. Used by home canners for decades.

New to canning altogether? Start with my Canning & Preserving hub for the full rundown before you tackle pumpkin specifically.

What You’ll Need

• Small pie or sugar pumpkins (avoid the giant jack-o-lantern type — stringy, watery flesh)
• A pressure canner (not a pressure cooker — see FAQ below)
• Pint or quart jars, new lids, bands
• A large pot for blanching
• A vegetable peeler, sharp knife, jar lifter

(Shop This Post section below has direct links.)

New to pressure canning itself? My Pressure Canning for Beginners guide covers the basics before you jump into pumpkin specifically.

Why This Works

Cutting the pumpkin into 1-inch cubes solves the density problem — heat can actually get to the center of every piece. Boiling the cubes for two minutes before packing starts that heat penetration early and helps the pieces pack more evenly. It’s not an extra step for texture. It’s the step that makes the whole thing safe.

Best Varieties for Canning

Best varieties for canning are the small, dense “pie” or “sugar” types, the opposite profile from what you’d pick for carving. Here’s the honest breakdown, cross-checked against a couple of sources:

Good for canning (dense flesh, less watery, better flavor):

• New England Pie / Sugar Pie — the standard, and what you already grow for eating
• Small Sugar
• Baby Bear
• Cinderella (Rouge Vif d’Étampes) — stringless, good flavor, bigger yield per pumpkin
• Musquee de Provence — nutty flavor, dense
• Long Island Cheese — another good dense option if you want to try something new

Not recommended, workable but inferior:

• Connecticut Field — coarse, a little watery, sometimes stringy. Sources call it “reasonable” for pies, which is code for there are better options out there. And that tracks with how I already use mine. It’s not my canning pumpkin. It’s the one the grandkids carve, and whatever’s left goes to the cattle and chickens. New England Pie is the one that actually ends up in my jars.
  
• Jack-O-Lantern, Howden, and other big carving types — bred for size and a hollow shell, watery and bland.
  
• Jack Be Littles aren’t really in either camp — they’re an ornamental mini, too small and seed-heavy to be worth peeling and cubing for canning, so decor is the right call there too.

Can You Can Pumpkin Puree? The Real Answer

One of the main reasons I wanted to can puree in the first place is that roasting a whole pumpkin in the oven and scooping out the flesh is just so easy. It is way easier than peeling and cubing. I get it. But easy doesn’t make it safe, and puree’s the one form nobody’s actually tested.

Short answer: no. Not safely, not at home, not with any pressure or processing time — because none exists that’s been tested and proven safe.

Here’s why, and it’s not arbitrary. Pureed or mashed pumpkin is dense and inconsistent from batch to batch — sometimes thick, sometimes thin, depending on the pumpkin, how much you mashed it, how much liquid is in there. That inconsistency means heat can’t be guaranteed to penetrate all the way to the center of the jar during processing. If the center doesn’t get hot enough, for long enough, botulism spores can survive. USDA pulled approval for home-canned pumpkin butter and puree back in 1989, based on research out of the University of Minnesota, and that guidance hasn’t changed since.

NCHFP’s own instructions say it plainly: “Caution: Do not mash or puree.”

How to Can Pumpkin (Cubed) — Step by Step

For reference: two of my pie pumpkins (5 pounds total) filled 2 quart jars. That’s a fair rule of thumb if you’re trying to figure out how many pumpkins to pull from your own patch.

Wash the pumpkin, cut it in half, and remove the seeds.

Pin it

Cut the pumpkin into 1-inch-wide slices. If the grooves on the outside are deep, cut along them first to break the pumpkin into natural sections — it’s easier than fighting one big round.

Then peel each slice with a vegetable peeler; it’s faster than a knife and easier to control.

Cube the flesh into 1-inch pieces.

Pin it

Boil fresh water for the canning liquid — I use fresh hot water so the finished jarred pumpkin liquid isn’t cloudy. This is a preference, not required — you can use the cooking liquid if you prefer.

Boil the cubes in water for 2 minutes.

Pack the hot jars using a slotted spoon with hot pumpkin cubes and hot, fresh water, leaving 1-inch headspace.

Pin it

Pin it

Wipe the rim of the jars, apply lids, and screw bands fingertip-tight. Process in the pressure canner per the chart below.

Pin it

Cool naturally — do not force-cool a pressure canner.

Processing Time & Pressure

Pin it

Weighted-gauge canner:

Jar Size	0–1,000 ft	Above 1,000 ft
Pints	55 min at 10 lb	55 min at 15 lb
Quarts	90 min at 10 lb	90 min at 15 lb

Dial-gauge canner (use a styled list — four elevation bands break the mobile table rule):

• 0–2,000 ft: 11 lb pressure
• 2,001–4,000 ft: 12 lb pressure
• 4,001–6,000 ft: 13 lb pressure
• 6,001–8,000 ft: 14 lb pressure
• Process time is the same at every elevation: 55 min pints, 90 min quarts.

What to Expect

Pin it

Your finished jars will hold soft, tender pumpkin cubes in cooking liquid, not puree, not smooth. That’s correct. The pumpkin will look duller and softer than fresh, and the liquid may look cloudy. Also correct. When you’re ready to use it, drain and mash or blend it yourself. That’s the point where it finally becomes the puree consistency you’re used to.

Troubleshooting

• Liquid siphoned out of the jars during processing: Usually a pressure drop that happened too fast. Let the canner depressurize naturally next time, and don’t rush the vent.
• Jar didn’t seal: Check the rim for a bit of pumpkin or liquid that snuck onto it before the lid went on — that’s the most common cause.
• Pieces floated to the top: Cosmetic, not a safety issue. Pack a little tighter next time if it bothers you.

Still unsure if a jar’s good? My Is My Canned Food Safe post walks through exactly what to check before you eat anything from a jar you’re second-guessing.

Freezing vs. Canning Pumpkin

	Canning	Freezing
Shelf life	About 12 months, room temp	8–12 months, freezer space needed
Texture after	Cubed, needs mashing	Closer to fresh puree texture
Best for	Pantry storage, no freezer space	If freezer room isn’t a concern

Both are legitimate. If your freezer is already packed with beef from calving season, canning wins by default — that’s shelf space you don’t have to fight for.

What About Pumpkin Puree and Pumpkin Butter?

If you searched your way here looking for pumpkin butter specifically, same answer as puree, and for the same reason (covered above). No tested home-canning method exists. The added sugar in butter changes the safety math further, not less.

The workaround isn’t complicated: can it in cubes using the method above, then mash, blend, or cook it down into butter after you open the jar.

Or skip the extra step entirely and try my Pumpkin Orange Freezer Jam — it needs no canner at all and keeps in the freezer for up to six months.

How to Use Your Canned Pumpkin

Once you’re ready to use a jar, drain and mash the cubes, then put them to work:

• Stir it into Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Soup
• Bake it into Pumpkin Zucchini Bread
• Use the same pressure-canning method again on Potatoes; same equipment, same skill, different pantry staple

From-scratch recipes, canning know-how, and sourdough secrets — delivered to your inbox every week. No fluff. Just real food from a real kitchen.

Subscribe 

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

Built with Kit

Shop This Post

• Pressure canner – this All American 921 is the exact pressure canner I use
• Wide-mouth quart jars or for small jars, I use these pint jars
• Jar lifter is a must have canning tool
• Vegetable peeler making peeling pumpkins quick and easy

FAQ for Canning Pumpkins

Can you can pumpkin puree?

No. Puree is too dense for heat to safely penetrate the jar. Can it in cubes, then mash after opening.

Can you can pumpkin in a water bath?

No. Pumpkin is low-acid, and a water bath canner never gets hot enough to make it safe, no matter how long you process it. Only a pressure canner reaches the temperature that actually kills off botulism spores. That’s a hard no, not a maybe.

Do you have to blanch pumpkin before canning?

Yes, boiling the cubes for 2 minutes before packing is part of the tested method, not an optional step.

Can I can pumpkin without a pressure canner?

No safe substitute exists. If you don’t have one, freezing is the better route for you this year.

Is it better to freeze or can pumpkin?

Both work. Canning saves freezer space; freezing keeps a texture closer to fresh puree. My freezer doesn’t have the room anyway, and honestly, whatever went in there would get lost and forgotten. I like being able to see it on the pantry shelf.

What’s the best pumpkin variety for canning?

Small pie or sugar pumpkins — avoid large carving pumpkins, which run stringy and watery.

How long does canned pumpkin last?

About 12 months stored in a cool, dark place.

Can I use canned pumpkin straight from the jar for pie filling?

Drain and mash it first — it won’t be pie-ready straight out of the jar, but gets there in one extra step.

Can I can butternut squash the same way?

Yes. I use this same cubed, pressure-canned method for winter squash too. Same steps, same processing times.

How much pumpkin fits in a pint or quart jar?

I find that about 1 pound of peeled, seeded, 1-inch pumpkin cubes can fit into a quart jar after the cubes have been boiled for two minutes and hot packed. A pint would hold roughly ½ pound of prepared cubes.

From My Patch to Yours

That’s the whole method. No shortcuts, no puree, no crossing your fingers hoping the jar seals.

Next October, when the wheelbarrows start piling up again, you’ll have an actual plan instead of a Google search at 9pm.

I’d love to know — what pumpkin variety do you swear by, and what happens to the ones that don’t make the cut at your place? Mine go to the cattle and chickens. Tell me in the comments.

And if you want more straight answers, no guessing, no “just wing it” canning advice, subscribe below. No noise, no pressure, just the good stuff.

If this saved you a Google search at 9pm too, a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating on the recipe card above helps the next person find it just as fast.

Simple Living ❤️ Country Style — wheelbarrows in, jars out

Pumpkins Recipes You’ll Love

• Homemade Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer – Better Than Store-Bought!
  
• Brown Sugar Pumpkin Dump Cake from Scratch (No Box Mix!)
  
• Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes with Gingersnap Crust – Creamy Bite-Sized Fall Dessert

Pin and Save for Later!