Persimmons! Help!

I stopped by the Daley Center today to watch the (highly recommended, free) Midnight Circus performance. After the performance I picked up some apples to bring back to the office and on impulse grabbed a pint of persimmons, I guess on the feeling that persimmons are fleeting and should be grabbed when possible.

Now, of course, I don't have any idea what to do with them. I remember a persimmon pudding from my youth but that doesn't appeal. Can I just peel and eat them? I know, oh what a face I made, that I can't just bite into them. (In fact I see now from google that the persimmon world is divided into astringent and non-astringent varieties. I can safely assert that these are an astringent variety.) On the other hand, the fruit itself seemed sweet. Is it just the skin that's so astringent? Suggestions?

Hi,

In Fading Feast by Ray Sokolov, of the Wall Street Journal, he has an article on Persimmons from Indiana with recipes. One recipe is for Persimmon Fudge. I am 90% sure where this book is, I bumped into it recently, so I will provide a recipe ... or try google!

In his article, he said there are myths about the ripeness of the persimmon relying on frost. If I recall correctly, he conducted a little experiment where he allowed persimmons to ripen (maybe in a paper bag) without benefit of frost. He had lovely tasting persimmons. I strongly suspect the persimmons you have are under ripe and simply need more time.

I have in my freezer, a treasure chest of goodies, some persimmon puree I made 1-2 years ago when someone suddenly gifted me with more than I could handle. I made some persimmon pies before freezing the rest. You can also make persimmon ice cream.

However, since I reread Fading Feast recently while doing research on pies, I must admit I am very intrigued by the fudge.

Regards,

Hey Ann,

It's been a while since I ate a persimmon, but I do recall that the skin (and the pulp near the skin) is more astringent, and that they do get sweeter as they ripen.

Hammond

Buying persimmons by the pint makes me think that these are the small, native persimmons, which are quite different from the Asian persimmons found in stores. I would hate to have to peel these little seedy things. The native persimmons need to be dead ripe, or they will be astringent. I don't know whether frost is really needed, but we are talking late November in south central Indiana for fully ripe. Pureeing in a food mill with medium disk works well. A pint of fruit won't begin to make enough puree for much of a pudding. Note that there are two types of persimmon pudding: steamed like plum pudding or baked something like brownies.

They are indeed little and seedy, not to mention poor-complexioned. I've also been assuming they are the native ones. And you're right. There's not going to be much pulp in the whole mess of them.

Thanks for the Sokolov reminder, Cathy. Once you said it I realized it was were all my vague good feelings about persimmons come from. I may even be able to put my hands on my own copy.

I do see a number of persimmon fudge recipes on line. I may de-pulp and try to make half a batch. I also see a persimmon-fennel salad recipe on-line (and conveniently have a couple of fennel bulbs in the fridge), but it calls for slices of persimmon, and these sure aren't of slicing firmness.

Seedy? They must be a different variety from the ones I usually eat, which only have one or two large seeds if any.

Generally, there are two types of persimmons available in stores: fuyu and hachiya. The fuyu's you see more often...they look like "squashed tomatoes." The hachiya are more of an acorn shape. I usually get the fuyus, which are supposedly sweeter, and which you can eat even if they're still a little firm.

You do have to peel the skin, though. I've never cooked with them, since I like the fresh fruit itself, but I did see a recent recipe on Bon Appetit's Web site for lamb chops w/ persimmon chutney.

Janet C. wrote:Generally, there are two types of persimmons available in stores: fuyu and hachiya. The fuyu's you see more often...they look like "squashed tomatoes." The hachiya are more of an acorn shape. I usually get the fuyus, which are supposedly sweeter, and which you can eat even if they're still a little firm.

This reminds me of a recent trip to Marketplace on Oakton. Ms. EC had never tasted a persimmon before and asked me what they tasted like. I don't particularly like their flavor, so I told her to grab one and put it in our cart. After investigating the persimmon table, she said, "do I buy the fuyu or the hachiya?" I had no idea that there were multiple varieties. So we bought one of each.

Our persimmon tasting started with the hachiya which were well....astringent. The fuyus were indeed much sweeter, but Ms. EC was so put off by the flavor of the hachiyas that she dropped out of the tasting.

Harold McGee's book "The Curious Cook" has an entire chapter on persimmons. He recommends wrapping the fruit in Saran Wrap (the original, not the cling-wrap variety) for a day or two to tame the tannins. I've tried it - it works.

Native persimmons are as different from Asian persimmons as northern wild grapes are from Thompson seedless or as wild cherries are from Bing cherries. If you only know the ones in fruit stores and supermarkets, you don't have a clue about the native or wild varieties.

Native persimmons are common south of Indianapolis but have hardiness problems farther north. They are also quite perishable under handling due to their softness when ripe. I have to wonder where Anne's came from because they usually aren't seen this far north. Asian persimmons have very little flavor compared to the natives, so using natives when available is worthwhile. When my parents retired to a place near Seymour, IN, they had a big native persimmon tree in the yard. Picking and eating off the tree in late November was luscious. I just spit the seeds into the grass. Just as with some small, seedy grape varieties, the eating is worth the hassle.

Hachiya persimmons with some tannin have it concentrated near the skin, so peeling will help.

Cathy's post here http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=14704#14704 reminded me that I hadn't reported back on what I finally did with my native farmers' market persimmons.

The answer is that I ate them. They did take forever to ripen. They looked ripe, or even over-ripe when I bought them, but I gather that's the way persimmons look. I left them out at work for three or four days, then brought them home and refrigerated them for another three or four, then took them out last Friday and forgot to put them back in the fridge so they were still on the counter when I came back from D.C. last night. I've been eating one or two with each move, and often hitting some tannins, but by this morning they were perfect and I finished the pint.

They really are incredible and not like anything else I've ever had. I can't imagine what would be involved in separating the tenacious pulp from the many seeds (well, five or six, close to the size of pumpkin seeds, but that's a lot for a fruit smaller than a golf ball) to use the pulp in a recipe. (I did find this article which says I could do it with a food mill http://www.courierjournal.com/features/ ... 31001.html ). But the peeling is very easy. Run them under cold water and the skin slips off with a push of the thumb, very much like the skin of a scalded tomato. And they are delicious just peeled and eaten out of hand.