Im going to gather a bunch of wild American persimmons tomorrow and would like to try dehydrating some. Does anyone else dehydrate American persimmons do you remove seeds or dry them whole?
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Can’t speak for how well it works for American Persimmons but drying persimmons popular in Asia. In Japan they call it Hoshigaki.
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A while back I extraxted pulp from wild american persimmon… and made fruit leather from the pulp.
It was ok… but most of the great wild persimmon flavor was lost. It was mostly sweet with a little candy type flavor.
I was not impressed…
All the figs I dehydrated got eaten… not all the persimmon fruit leather did.
TNHunter
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@Fishinjunky
I recommend slicing them horizontally, no more than 1/4 thick. Next, put the slices on racks of a standard dehydrator – slices not overlapping in the same rack. Depending on the number of racks, it could take 12 to 32 hours total for drying. Check the bottom-most rack (closest to the hot-air fans) after 6 hours, then every two hours or whatever seems adequate. You might find some of slices will benefit from flipping over. When the bottom-most rack is nearly dry, move it to the top. Now start checking both the bottom and the top rack at the same interval. When the top rack is done, remove it. If the bottom rack needs to come up before that, then place it second from top. In this process, the number of racks is slowly reducing and thus the drying times and the monitoring time reduces as well.
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@Richard Thanks that’s what im going to do
@TNHunter thanks i was wondering how fruit leather would taste
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I have dehydrated Am. Persimmons in the past…seeds-in is the way to go - if they are seeded…too hard to try to remove them. I’ve cut them in halves/quarters ‘lengthwise’, or have just ‘squashed’ them before placing on dehydrator racks; either way works. You have to be careful not to break a tooth on the seeds, when eating them. Flavor seems to preserved better than making persimmon fruit leather.
I’ve put a couple of gallons of pulp in the freezer this week, but can’t really dedicate any more freezer space to persimmon pulp, so I’m making fruit leather. As @TNHunter said, the flavor is mostly lost, but it is a way to preserve them, and my adult children will carry it on hikes, etc., as a healthful snack.
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When extracting persimmon pulp for small batches… a potato ricer works well. That is what I was using above.
I found that potato ricer on the clearance rack in a dept store. 5 bucks.
TNHunter
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