Pickled Pumpkin Balls

Like many Gourmet recipes of the ’70s, this recipe from the magazine’s 1978 November issue makes clever use of a melon baller. In this case, the tool is used to carve the flesh of a pumpkin into perfectly uniform, snack-size spheres. These balls cook quickly in a vinegar-spiked syrup full of cinnamon, cloves and allspice, candying and pickling them in one fell swoop. Think of these pickled pumpkin balls almost like an autumnal chowchow - a sweet, tangy condiment to go with all of the savoury, meaty, roasted flavours on your Thanksgiving dinner table. These can be made a week in advance, which means that you can get all of your prepping and pumpkin-scooping out of the way the weekend before the holiday.

1 pumpkin
1⅔ cups sugar
¾ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup water
1 stick cinnamon, broken into pieces
6 cloves
6 whole allspice
4 (2") strips lemon peel

With a 1" melon-ball cutter, scoop out enough balls from the flesh of a pumpkin to measure 2 cups. In an enameled or stainless steel saucepan combine sugar, apple cider vinegar, water, cinnamon stick, broken into pieces, cloves, whole allspice and strips of lemon peel.

Bring the liquid to a boil over moderate heat, stirring and washing down any sugar crystals clinging to the sides of the pan with a brush dipped in cold water until the sugar is dissolved, and cook the syrup, undisturbed, for 5 minutes. Add the pumpkin balls, simmer the mixture for 15 minutes and transfer the balls with a slotted spoon to a 1 pt jar.

Reduce the syrup over high heat to 1 cup, pour it and the spices over the balls and let the mixture cool. Chill the mixture, covered, for at least 3 hours. Transfer the pickles to a small serving bowl.

Keeps, covered and chilled, for 1 week.

Makes 1 pint.