We have a pumpkin here that's really hard to get into, called the "Queensland Blue". Many people joke that you should use an axe :-)

I stick in my large chef's knife and go at it. If the knife sticks as it cuts down, tap it gently but firmly with a rubber mallet or similar.

I somehow doubt that grocery stores use your DH's suggested method.

It may not be helpful, but Grandma used to hack them up with a hatchet, until she had pieces small enough to fit into the oven. It was kind of entertaining to watch. (grin) Hubbard isn't my favorite, but it's the kind I always ate growing up, before I found out about butternut!

Enjoy your find, you'll be eating a lot of squash...

Annie

I had one once and my neighbor had just gotten a new blade for his Sawzall and he cut it up....later I thought to use a frozen meat saw....never used it for meat but it has gut up a squash or 2.
Marina Del Chioggia is a lovely squash, but it doesn't keep long after it's ripe....and is the devil to get into!

This from Fine Cooking:

Cracking into this enormous squash can seem daunting at first. It helps to soften the skin by pricking the squash several times with a fork and microwaving it for 3 minutes (or bake it directly on the rack in the oven at 350ºF for about 10 minutes. To get to the flesh inside, set the squash on a towel on a cutting board to prevent it from slipping, and push the tip of a sharp chef’s knife into the squash near the stem. Carefully push the knife through the squash to the cutting board to cut off the stem. Then cut lengthwise through half of the squash, starting with the tip of your knife in the center of the squash. (If the knife sticks, don’t try to pull it out; this is dangerous, since it may come out suddenly. Instead, tap the handle with a rubber mallet or meat tenderizer until the knife cuts through the squash.) Rotate the squash and cut through the other side the same way. Push the halves apart with your hands. With a soup spoon, scrape the seeds and stringy bits away from the flesh and discard.

I have used the microwave method to soften up other hard winter squashes (Kabochas) and it does help a lot with cutting them up to manageable pieces.

Hmm, most Hubbards I've seen wouldn't clear the top of my microwave, but mine is fairly small. We always used a cleaver.

I find that my serrated bread knife often works good on things with tough skin -- better, actually than my chef's knife. The saw tooth edge cuts through that tough skin -- whether pumpkin, watermelon or butternut squash. But perhaps I have an exceptional bread knife.

A while ago I read a poster say that the easiest way to open a squash, or a watermelon, was to throw it down the stairs! Or, from the second floor to the parking lot. Sounds like something the grandkids would get a kick out of doing.

Laughing.... I'm tempted to do the hatchet method, myself. Or off the deck onto one of my handy New England boulders.

I use a very sharp, very large chef's knife, starting the cut by using the tip of the knife & poking a hole first. I also use something that won't damage the knife blade to whack it deeper into the squash - a wood mallet is good, but I've used the handles of wooden spoons as well.

My fave way to prepare winter squash these days is baking @ 400F w/ butter & whole sprigs of fresh rosemary, then adding salt, pepper & maybe some honey, if needed, when it's done.

Good luck - watch your hands & fingers!

Thanks all! I grew up eating Hubbard squash, but unlike Annie, I always liked it. Will report back on our method of cracking it open. Might even prompt me to learn how to post photos.

I like it, too, seagrass, better than butternut, but it rarely appears in the stores down here anymore.

1. I haven't met a winter squash I didn't like, writersblock. I've told this story before, but it surprised me as one of the only American foods I missed when we lived in the Netherlands for a few years. The Dutch grow them as seasonal ornamentals but they're sprayed very obviously with something and are sold in garden centers, not grocery stores. My Dutch landlady told me that the butternut squash my DH brought home from an American base in Germany was not edible. She was incredulous at the thought we would consume it.

What's up with that 1. ??? I couldn't get rid of it. Showed back up after copy and paste.

Just showing you your rank!!

LOL.

LOL!

The "1." is for 'ordered list". It's the button to the immediate left of Photo. We used to use the HTML functions for ordered and unordered lists (the second is between ordered and italic) back on Gardenweb. They added those buttons after we moved to Houzz, but I don't know if it was because they were in demand or because having them made old posts draw correctly or what.

I once broke a favorite knife trying to get into a turban squash, and that's no hubbard! I think I'm with Annie's grandmother on this--hatchet--though the saw also sounds like a potential...

I broke a favorite Henkels knife trying to carve the core out of a whole cabbage. I took it back to the store I bought it from because it came with a warranty and they were dubious but did replace it....

ETA - it was a large cauliflower, not a cabbage.

Seagrass, I like Hubbard, I like pretty much all the winter squashes, but the ones that we grew always seemed more fibrous and less sweet than the butternuts. We never had one small enough to fit into a microwave, though.

I'm still going with the hatchet method, although dropping out of a 2nd story window might be more fun!

Annie

I find acorn squash to be stringy, and butternut sort of "grainy" for want of a better word...my favorites are delicata and sweet dumpling.

I heard several of these methods recently and I'm always a little surprised. I just wipe the Hubbard squash ( my girls call it the ugly squash) with a hot rag and put it in the oven. I lower the rack and set the oven at 350 and let it bake. I always get a very large one this time of year as it is our favorite squash and I freeze any I don't use right away. Once the squash is done I easily cut it in half, clean out the seeds etc, and use a large spoon to clean the flesh out of the squash for freezing. I either vacuum seal it or use zip lock style bags. Much easier than dropping down stairs, out a second story window, sawing, hacking, butchering and so on.

OK - Mollie. You win!!! Do you pierce it so it doesn't explode???

To me, roasting a whole pumpkin is the easiest way to go. Although, for a little excitement, I'd rather be standing (not too closely) by Annie's grandma, while she skillfully wields out a hatchet.

Btw, my favorite pumpkins, thus far, are Butternut Squash, Kabocha and Sugar Loaf (a smaller, more flavorful cousin to Delicata).

Here's a link which discusses roasting a whole pumpkin; scroll down to pumpkin image.

Fresh Pumpkin Recipes

Sol

My oven is a standard size - part of a pedestrian, normal gas range. Not a restaurant size or quality at all. All of the Hubbard squashes I have met whole are too big and too heavy...or would take a fortnight to roast. But this little puppy I found is only 6 lbs. and about the size of a football (before Deflategate). So, I'm going to try Mollie's method.

Seagrass_gw, I use a large kitchen fork and poke a few holes to avoid just such a mess. Good luck.

Thanks Mollie and to everyone. I'll report back. We'll be cooking it this week. Cold and rain coming our way. Time for turkey pot pie (Bob's Turkey Farm, Lancaster, MA) and winter squash...peas and pearl onions, homemade cranberry sauce. If we're lucky, our local farm stand will still have sweet potato rolls for sale.

Not possible to eat too many Thanksgiving kind of dinners....a prelude to next month.