The Great Pumpkin
And, no this isn't about pumpkin spice. So if that's what you're looking for, sorry. Maybe in a future post.
Anyway, if you've read my profile, you'll already know that I am basically a trophy husband for a very successful business woman. That gives me time to do some pretty awesome things, and all of my friends have been telling me I needed to share the knowledge. I don't want to seem pretentious, but it is what it is.
So with it being October and Halloween's just around the corner, I thought I'd start with making a classic, retro Jack o'Lantern, you know the kind your grandfather used to make. Clean an simple. It hearkens back to a simpler time, and that makes me feel good inside. Like, you know there are still some things you can count on. I don't need to see Here's Johnny faces and puking pumpkins thank you very much. Make mine traditional if you please.
I know you've seen a million blogs and Pinterest posts about how to carve fancy pumpkins, and you've probably failed at one or two of those. I'm not even sure what a lot of those things are supposed to be. Here, we're looking for success.
History
So before we begin, it's important to explore the history of the jack o'lantern. Most historians agree that the jack o'lantern came from Ireland and blah bla blah bablah blah blah. You can look up that Wikipedia entry yourself later. Let's get on with the fun.
There are a few things you'll need, and don't worry I'm not about to send you to the store to buy a bunch of exotic tools and supplies.
Things You'll Need:
Clean the outside of your pumpkin really good. Make a solution of about 2 tablespoons of bleach in a half-gallon of water. Wiping the pumpkin down with that will get rid of the microbe thingys that would love to make your pumpkin rot and stink quicker than necessary. Dry the pumpkin.
(A note on using bleach: Before you start any of this, go put on an old t-shirt you really don't care about. Don't get your favorite old souvenir shirt from that cool bait and tackle shop, because you're going to spill a little bleach somewhere along the way, and your shirt's going to have some little orange spots. For that matter, put on some grungy old grass cutting pants too.)
Step 2
Spread the newspaper on the counter top, place the pumpkin on your newly prepared work area. Get both of the bowls ready. I prefer a large stainless bowl and I love to also use my standby all-purpose pottery bowl which was hand-thrown by a friend of mine, Joey Holmes. His stuff is awesome, and you can check out some of it on his Facebook page. In fact, you should go order some now. You won't regret it. He's even got these cool ghosts now. -->>>>
Knife Choices:
You may be tempted to use your best Hammer Stahl chef's knife. Those are great knives, but for this I recommend going in the other direction. I use the cheapest serrated steak knife I have. It's small, you can make controlled cuts slowly "sawing through the pumpkin, and the blade is flexible, so you can makes some directional cuts as needed.
Step 3
Cut the top of the pumpkin off. You want the whole to be big enough to allow your hand and scooping tools access, but not too big so as to take away too much of the artistic canvas you'll need. I didn't get any action shots of doing this step because, well I only have two hands. But here's a shot of the result. I'm liking this one already.
Step 4
Clean out the guts. Start by reaching in with your hand to get as many seeds out as you can. Try to sort of separate them from the stringy stuff in there, but don't seat it if some of the stringy stuff comes to too. Place the seeds in your large bowl. Later, we're going to add some water to that bowl, get the seeds cleaned up good, and roast them.
Once you've got most of the seeds out, get your ice cream scoop and start removing as much of the guts as you can. You may even want to scrape some of pulp from inside the pumpkin just to get as smooth a surface as you can. Just to keep things tidy, I collected all this refuse in another bowl for easy disposal.
Step 5
This is an important one, and one of my best tricks. Place the pumpkin in the sink (hopefully it will fit -- if not take it outside). Pour about a quarter cup of bleach directly into the pumpkin, then fill the pumpkin with water -- all the way to the tippy top. Let this soak for a good say 10 minutes. Here again, we are killing microbes that would have your jack o'lantern turn into a black, moldy pile of goo before it's time. After the soak, carefully empty the water from the pumpkin and dry the inside a little with a couple paper towels. You're still wearing the old worthless t-shirt, right?
Step 6
Design your face. I started with some light pencil strokes to get the basic placement of the eyes and mouth. I'm not doing a nose, because if you've done your history homework, you'll already know that most of the original Irish turnip jack o'lanterns omitted the nose. Once I've got the basics laid out, I use a Sharpie to mark the corners of the cuts, then I makes squiggly lines to help me remember which parts are to be removed. You can outline all the cuts if you want, it's just a little harder to clean up later if you leave some of the ink when cutting.
Step 7
The cut. Using your cheap steak knife, start cutting FROM the corners. That way you are more likely to have good, clean corners and not over cut past the corners in your eagerness to get finished. Just work your way around, and before you know it you're jack o'lantern's face will be revealed.
A couple final steps: 1) Use some of the bleach solution to wash down the insides of the cuts, and to clean up any Sharpie marks that were left; and 2) Place an old nub of a candle or an LED headlamp inside the pumpkin for a light source. I prefer an old candle that I'm going to worry about retrieving after the inevitable decomposition. You saved the burned down candles from you Advent Wreath last year, right? This is a perfect reuse of those.
Enjoy! and Happy Halloween!
Anyway, if you've read my profile, you'll already know that I am basically a trophy husband for a very successful business woman. That gives me time to do some pretty awesome things, and all of my friends have been telling me I needed to share the knowledge. I don't want to seem pretentious, but it is what it is.
I know you've seen a million blogs and Pinterest posts about how to carve fancy pumpkins, and you've probably failed at one or two of those. I'm not even sure what a lot of those things are supposed to be. Here, we're looking for success.
History
So before we begin, it's important to explore the history of the jack o'lantern. Most historians agree that the jack o'lantern came from Ireland and blah bla blah bablah blah blah. You can look up that Wikipedia entry yourself later. Let's get on with the fun.
There are a few things you'll need, and don't worry I'm not about to send you to the store to buy a bunch of exotic tools and supplies.
Things You'll Need:
- A pumpkin that is basically shaped like a pumpkin should be shaped. You got that right?
- A big bowl
- A small bowl
- Some kind of knife*
- An ice cream scoop, or some other largish sturdy spoon.
- Maybe some old newspapers to keep pumpkin guts from getting all over the place.
- Bleach
Clean the outside of your pumpkin really good. Make a solution of about 2 tablespoons of bleach in a half-gallon of water. Wiping the pumpkin down with that will get rid of the microbe thingys that would love to make your pumpkin rot and stink quicker than necessary. Dry the pumpkin.
(A note on using bleach: Before you start any of this, go put on an old t-shirt you really don't care about. Don't get your favorite old souvenir shirt from that cool bait and tackle shop, because you're going to spill a little bleach somewhere along the way, and your shirt's going to have some little orange spots. For that matter, put on some grungy old grass cutting pants too.)
Step 2
Spread the newspaper on the counter top, place the pumpkin on your newly prepared work area. Get both of the bowls ready. I prefer a large stainless bowl and I love to also use my standby all-purpose pottery bowl which was hand-thrown by a friend of mine, Joey Holmes. His stuff is awesome, and you can check out some of it on his Facebook page. In fact, you should go order some now. You won't regret it. He's even got these cool ghosts now. -->>>>Knife Choices:
You may be tempted to use your best Hammer Stahl chef's knife. Those are great knives, but for this I recommend going in the other direction. I use the cheapest serrated steak knife I have. It's small, you can make controlled cuts slowly "sawing through the pumpkin, and the blade is flexible, so you can makes some directional cuts as needed.
Step 3
Cut the top of the pumpkin off. You want the whole to be big enough to allow your hand and scooping tools access, but not too big so as to take away too much of the artistic canvas you'll need. I didn't get any action shots of doing this step because, well I only have two hands. But here's a shot of the result. I'm liking this one already.
Step 4
Once you've got most of the seeds out, get your ice cream scoop and start removing as much of the guts as you can. You may even want to scrape some of pulp from inside the pumpkin just to get as smooth a surface as you can. Just to keep things tidy, I collected all this refuse in another bowl for easy disposal.
Step 5
This is an important one, and one of my best tricks. Place the pumpkin in the sink (hopefully it will fit -- if not take it outside). Pour about a quarter cup of bleach directly into the pumpkin, then fill the pumpkin with water -- all the way to the tippy top. Let this soak for a good say 10 minutes. Here again, we are killing microbes that would have your jack o'lantern turn into a black, moldy pile of goo before it's time. After the soak, carefully empty the water from the pumpkin and dry the inside a little with a couple paper towels. You're still wearing the old worthless t-shirt, right?
Step 6
Design your face. I started with some light pencil strokes to get the basic placement of the eyes and mouth. I'm not doing a nose, because if you've done your history homework, you'll already know that most of the original Irish turnip jack o'lanterns omitted the nose. Once I've got the basics laid out, I use a Sharpie to mark the corners of the cuts, then I makes squiggly lines to help me remember which parts are to be removed. You can outline all the cuts if you want, it's just a little harder to clean up later if you leave some of the ink when cutting.Step 7
The cut. Using your cheap steak knife, start cutting FROM the corners. That way you are more likely to have good, clean corners and not over cut past the corners in your eagerness to get finished. Just work your way around, and before you know it you're jack o'lantern's face will be revealed.
Enjoy! and Happy Halloween!
Comments
Post a Comment