What I mean is ripen on the tree, then pick and eat immediately. I had found a persimmon (Nakita) on the tree that was super ripe. It was riper than when I age and ripen them myself. I pulled it down, gave it a rinse and ate it. While wonderfully sweet, it also left a puckery aftertaste in my mouth.
I’m thinking you need to let the persimmons sit a spell after they are picked no matter how ripe it is. The tree must give it some pucker while itis attached to the tree.
Wild americans here will tree ripen and lose all astringency.
They are usually past just being soft and ripe color … for example they hung on until a bit shrivvled and wrinkle… and may have darkened in color some.
Last week while at Walmart… I checked the roadside tree I call persimonilla… and it had 3 ripe fruit left on it. I picked all 3 and ate them right there… no astringency at all… very tasty.
Just a few years ago when I first spotted the tree it was first week of December and it stll had 20+ fruit hanging. No leaves and fruit hanging helped me spot it.
I found a couple persimmons on the Natches Trace … while hunting shagbark hickory nuts… that in December still had some fruit hanging… no astringency at all… the pulp had sort of dried up some and turned thick and sugary… delicious.
Most that i find on the tree in Sept or October that are orange and soft… i give them 5-7 days on the counter under glass before I start trying them. They do lose all astringency that way.
They definitely will, ate my Nikita’s gift right off the tree. Maybe it wasn’t as ripe as you previously thought, but I think that’s most peoples method of eating them. It’s definitely mine haha
With all this said, sometimes I’ve had American persimmons that seem ripe enough but still got me. So now early in the season (September) I avoid eating the skin as it still can have some astringency when the whole fruit is soft. But by late November I think most of even the skin lacks much astringency, I still usually don’t eat the skin because I don’t want to risk it.
If you search online… much returns saying it is perfectly ok to eat persimmons skin and all.
But then there is also this information out there…
Why does my stomach hurt after eating persimmon?
The persimmon bezoar forms due to the exposure of the soluble tannin called shibuol to gastric acid, which causes polymerization into a coagulative cellulose-protein. Persimmon bezoars can cause ulcers, gastric outlet obstruction, and intestinal obstruction.
I think the bezoar risk is asociated with eating lots of persimmons daily. The skin and the core / pith part… seems to hold on to the tannins longer than the pulp.
I know that I will never eat lots of persimmins daily… especially for extended time. But still I avoid the skins and pith when possible.
Here, the season is short. American persimmons begin to ripen in mid/late Sept. Asians and hybrids October into November. It seems that progress toward non-astringency proceeds OK so long as temperatures stay warm, roughly 60-75 F daytime, 40-55 F nighttime. But when daytime temps drop to 45-60 F and nighttime temps to 30-40 F, progress stalls.
Meanwhile, those same fruits lose astringency in a few days at 95 F in a dehydrator.
As your source notes, the issue is tannin rather than skin, per se. But as you point out, the skin and pith retain tannins longer, so there is more risk if we eat the skin.
Note the term “coagulative cellulose-protein.” As you know, tannins in persimmon bind to proteins in saliva. Yuch! The same thing can happen in your gut. I suppose there’s a reaction with naturally occurring gut proteins. But diet may matter too. I’ve read that the Japanese specifically caution against eating persimmons with proteins such as meat, fish, milk, soy.
I have a friend who is an MD. While in Israel (where she ate lots of persimmons), she happened to witness a surgery where a persimmon bezoar was removed from a patient’s intestine. She slowed down her consumption after that.
