# Pumpkins: Fruit or vegetable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151 "2017-10-17T19:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/41 "2017-10-19T15:48:44Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > So basically the shell around the walnut is the same as the skin on an apple seed, effectively considered part of the seed. No, it’s more like the core that surrounds the seed. You know where you have that apple-y looking stuff that is really hard. It’s called the endocarp. [[See here](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Pome_apples_text.jpg), as there are a couple layers.) That would be analogous to the shell of a stone fruit. [Here’s a picture of a walnut](https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/images/hicknt2.jpg), with the endocarp labeled. It’s the shell. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/42 "2017-10-19T17:51:41Z")
[walnut on tree](http://www.depauw.edu/files/naturepark/plants/thumb_walnut-fruit.jpg), and [split open](https://readtiger.com/img/wkp/en/Juglans_regia_Echte_Walnussfrucht_2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/43 "2017-10-19T18:17:06Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > If you have to cook it, it’s a vegetable. In my opinion. Bananas: Fruit. Plantains: Vegetable. You _can_ cook fruits, but you shouldn’t _have_ to. Is rhubarb a vegetable? How about quince? Gooseberries? Elderberries? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/44 "2017-10-19T18:42:00Z")
Vegetarians have been known to include fruit in their diets. My general feeling is that the distinction is not meaningful. “Fruit” is a subset of “vegetable”. All fruits are vegetables, but many vegetables are not fruits. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/45 "2017-10-19T19:58:09Z")
I’d put pumpkins in the same boat as tomatoes: a fruit botanically, traditionally a vegetable in a culinary sense, but versatile as a food. There’s a phrase along the lines of “Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad.” Hearing this, I started trying tomatoes in my fruit salads. By Jove, they really do add something. Seriously - try it sometime. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/46 "2017-10-19T20:42:33Z")
In the culinary sense of how to prepare/cook them, I don’t make any distinction between fruits and vegetables. In the sense of how they should be presented or combined with other fruits and vegetables, there’s nothing really significant there, but people would generally think that fruits can be eaten raw and vegetables need cooking. In the most important sense, which is how the food tastes, it doesn’t matter. However, presentation can affect taste, it’s a subjective type of thing, and in that regard I don’t know of a definitive answer but I think most people think of pumpkin as a vegetable, and if expecting a fruit bowl and given them a bowl of pumpkin it might turn some people off a little. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/47 "2017-10-19T21:23:19Z")
Carrots, lettuce, _brassica oleracea_, onions, turnips, cucumbers, these vegetables are eaten raw with fair regularity. Potatoes are one of the few vegetables that absolutely require cooking. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/48 "2017-10-19T21:39:52Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > And where does that leave [quince](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince)? Addendum: fruit shall also include those plants you can eat with a runcible spoon. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/49 "2017-10-19T22:58:34Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Carrots, lettuce, _brassica oleracea_, onions, turnips, cucumbers, these vegetables are eaten raw with fair regularity. Potatoes are one of the few vegetables that absolutely require cooking. Others that require cooking include kidney beans, lima beans, taro root and cassava. Some others probably won’t make you sick, but wouldn’t be palatable raw, such as eggplant, artichoke, sweet potato and bitter melon. Personally, I think kale is horrible raw, but some people insist it’s edible that way. To me, the culinary distinction between fruits and vegetables has nothing to do with cooking. It’s how it’s used: a fruit is more dessert-like. It’s a fuzzy distinction. As we’ve seen, there are plenty of cases where something could be considered either a fruit or a vegetable depending on context. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2017, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/50 "2017-10-20T19:12:40Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Addendum: fruit shall also include those plants you can eat with a runcible spoon. Preferably in a beautiful pea-green boat in the company of an owl and a pussy-cat. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/51 "2017-10-20T19:29:17Z")
A vegetable would be something that one would eat in a savory dish. Without sugar, pumpkins taste like ass. I would never eat them in a savory dish. Given that they are a fruit botanically and should only ever be eaten in desserts, I think it’s reasonable to call them a fruit. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/52 "2017-10-20T21:39:23Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > A vegetable would be something that one would eat in a savory dish. I would actually say that pumpkin is better in savory applications than sweet ones. In terms of pie, sweet potato “out-pumpkins” pumpkin pie. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/53 "2017-10-20T23:30:37Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > In fact, a lot of vegetables are better raw. Basically, anything you put in a salad. And lettuce in general would be gross cooked. Sweet Gem lettuce and romaine is quite decent sautéed or roasted. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/54 "2017-10-20T23:31:42Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > A vegetable would be something that one would eat in a savory dish. > > Without sugar, pumpkins taste like ass. I would never eat them in a savory dish. > > Given that they are a fruit botanically and should only ever be eaten in desserts, I think it’s reasonable to call them a fruit. Nah, pumpkins go quite well in savory dishes. Southern Indian cuisine and I think some African cuisines use pumpkin as a vegetable, I’ve done it before (including cooking them into rice dishes). ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/55 "2017-10-21T00:03:18Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > And lettuce in general would be gross cooked. In Chinese food, lettuce is more often cooked than eaten raw. There are even special varieties of lettuce bred for cooking. A Chinese restaurant near me has cooked lettuce on the menu - I’ve had it, and like it quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/56 "2017-10-21T02:48:27Z")
In the Little House series, the Ingalls family ate their tomatoes with sugar. Ma Ingalls made a green pumpkin pie that Pa thought was apple pie. I guess life on the prairie does make people insane. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2017, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/57 "2017-10-21T03:07:12Z")
For that matter, we think of papayas and mangoes as culinary ‘fruits’, but some cultures use the unripe “green” mangoes or papayas as salad vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2017, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/58 "2017-10-21T04:17:04Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Ma Ingalls made a green pumpkin pie that Pa thought was apple pie. At least she didn’t make it with Ritz crackers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151.md?page=2)