Calories in Squash, pie pumpkin, peeled, seeded

What makes squash so powerful?

Most canned pumpkin puree sold in the United States contains no actual pie pumpkin. Under FDA regulations (21 CFR 145.3), the standard of identity for "canned pumpkin" permits manufacturers to use any golden-fleshed, sweet winter squash variety. Libby's, which controls roughly 85% of the U.S. canned pumpkin market, uses a proprietary cultivar called Dickinson squash—a variety of Cucurbita moschata, the same species as butternut squash. True pie pumpkins, sometimes called sugar pumpkins, belong to Cucurbita pepo, making them botanical siblings to zucchini, acorn squash, and even decorative gourds rather than to butternut or kabocha. The distinction matters in the kitchen: C. pepo pie pumpkins tend to be more fibrous and watery than C. moschata varieties, which is precisely why commercial producers prefer the smoother, denser Dickinson. When cooking from scratch, roasting halved pie pumpkins face-down until the flesh collapses helps concentrate flavor and break down fibers, yielding a texture closer to the canned product most Americans expect.