I guess this was a seventeenth-century version of french fries made from pumpkin. I don't mean it was fried in hot fat, just that it was ubiquitous in the taverns of the day. Apparently it was so easy and so common in colonial times that it was the one foodstuff that could be found in any tavern.

One original recipe suggests the taste, when dressed, resembles apples, but our research has not yet reached that happy conclusion.

John Josselyn puts a different spin on it in his New England Rarities: when cooked it resembles baked apples. Alas! It didn't do that for us, either.

Now, three and a half centuries is a long time. If the past is a foreign land, then Pilgrim Plimoth is very far away. We don't know how the apples of the day looked when baked, but we know they were very different from the apples of today. In fact, I suspect a baked Roxbury Russet may hold its shape more than would be expected of a Gala or a Honeycrisp.

The pumpkin did hold its shape, but it was tender, too.  I might dress it with boiled cider rather than cider vinegar. There is hope here.