Persimmons, Per Se

About author / Victoria Wesseler

Healthy eating advocate; master gardener; local food expert. Even veggie haters love her recipes.

When it comes to recipes, my friend Jane is a “little bit country” and I’ m a little bit . . . well, you know the rest. Jane has a treasure trove of vintage, handwritten family recipes stuffed into her wooden recipe box. I have a collection of sleek black notebooks filled with recipes from cooking magazines which are tucked into plastic page protectors. Jane makes coffee cakes, berry pies, hearty soups, yeast rolls and fried chicken. I make stuffed grape leaves, summer rolls, miniature crustless quiches, and pansy sorbet.

During our frequent visits to each other’s kitchens, which only require crossing the hay field between our houses, recipes are frequently shared. Although our friendship is just a few years old, we have had quite an influence on each other’s cooking styles. The results have been great for both of us. My “farm boy” husband takes delight in my newfound passion for cooking comfort food. And Jane’s teenage daughter, Elizabeth, is happy to feast on her Mom’s Thai inspired salads.

I knew just where to turn when my husband came home from a visit to the Thorntown Farmers’ Market last fall with several bags of frozen persimmon pulp, hinting that he loved the persimmon pudding his Mom used to make for Thanksgiving. It was a recipe he neither had nor remembered. No problem. I was confident that Jane’s recipe box held the best persimmon pudding recipe I would ever need.

The persimmon is a beautiful glossy orange colored fruit native to China, which is the largest global producer of the fruit followed by Brazil, Japan, and Korea. In the United States, most of the commercial persimmon crop comes from California.

The two most common varieties of persimmon are the Hachiya, which is often referred to as the “astringent” type, and the Fuyu, the “non-astringent” type. Due to a high presence of tannin in the unripe Hachiya fruit, it has a bitter taste. If you hear people tell you that they don’t like persimmons because they taste bitter, chances are they once bit into an unripe Hachiya. The sweeter Fuyus are best to eat out of hand like a pear or an apple, while the pulp of the ripe Hachiyas is generally pureed and used in cakes, puddings, breads and sauces. The Hachiya puree is also delicious when added to vanilla smoothies or blended into vanilla or plain yogurt.

Persimmons are in season from October through December. When selecting Hachiya persimmons look for fruits with a deep orange color and avoid any with cracked skins. A ripe Hachiya will be soft and yield to gentle pressure. Keep ripe Hachiya persimmons refrigerated and use them within a few days. For longer storage, you can actually freeze the ripe whole fruit or puree the flesh and freeze it in freezer bags or containers. Both the frozen whole fruits and puree will keep in your freezer for 6-8 months. If you have unripe Hachiyas, they will ripen at room temperature within a few days. As the Hachiya ripens, the skin dulls and the astringent tannins evaporate, leaving you with a delicious spicy, sweet fruit that some compare to overly sweet apricots.

Ripe Fuyu persimmons are yellow-orange and, unlike the ripe soft Hachiya, firm to the touch. They will stay firm for up to three weeks at room temperature. The firm texture of the Fuyu and sweet crisp flesh makes it an excellent choice for fruit salads or snacking. Try tossing a diced Fuyu with a diced tart apple, some walnuts, a few raisins and a light drizzle of honey for a delicious fruit salad.

The puree my husband brought home was Hachiya puree. It had a beautiful deep orange color and made a wonderful persimmon pudding which we served at last year’s Thanksgiving dinner. The pudding, made from a recipe from Carol Dull, Jane’s mother, was delicious and received so many compliments from our guests that it will now become part of our Thanksgiving meal for years to come.

Persimmon pulp can usually be purchased frozen in specialty produce markets or orchards. CDKitchen has quite a few recipes which use this fruit as a central ingredient. As soon as the persimmons are ripe in Indiana, I am going to try several of them myself. And I encourage you to try Carol’s pudding recipe. It just might become a tradition at your Thanksgiving meal.

Serves/Makes: 15

• 2 cups Hachiya persimmon puree, thawed if frozen
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 quart 2% milk
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted