Last night was the big Jack O’Lantern Carve-A-Palooza and then I got to separate out the pumpkin seeds to roast tonight. (I would have done it yesterday, but things were hectic enough.)
So, what I did was take all the seeds and guts and goop and plop it all in a large bowl. After I picked out the worst of the guts, I filled the bowl with water. The seeds floated to the top and I scooped them out. Most of the guts and goop sank, but not all of it, so I re-floated the seeds and picked through it all again.
This did pretty good, but I still had to rinse the seeds one more time.
This all worked pretty well, but it took a while.
Is there a quicker, easier way?
(Of course this won’t help me now. But there’s always next year.)
-Rue.
Grab a handful of seeds and guts, and smear them thinly on a big piece of paper (I rip open a brown paper shopping bag.) Hold the paper vertically with one hand, and tap the back with the other. It takes a delicate touch, but if you do it right, the seeds will fall off while the guts stick.
Starts the same as #1, but you leave the paper out in the sun all day. The guts dry up and stick to the paper, and you can detach the seeds by crumbling the paper and then opening it.
Put them in a large plastic tub and hit 'em with the pressure washer. You vaporize the guts into water while the seeds remain intact.
If you’re only doing a small amount (1 pumpkin’s worth), you can just do Scylla’s pressure wash thingy on a small scale. Put the seeds and guts (big guts picked out) into a colandar and hit it with the sprayer at the sink. Guts fall through the holes, seeds stay in the colandar.
Grab a cluster of seeds, and gently pull them away from the main part of the guts they are attached to. That’s it. Pumpkin seeds that are completely clean just aren’t the same. They have to have bits of guts attached to them and be coated in gut slime and strings to taste right. Otherwise what’s the point of roasting them at home? You might as well get some already roasted and bagged at the store.
I don’t actually but I just had to say, after talking to a colleague just a little while ago, that it’s much harder to do when the seeds are inside your golden retriever.
