Persimmons

[thecityman]

I have what I think is a fairly unusual, and maybe a bit odd, way of using my fully ripe persimmons that I thought I’d share. I’ve never been a big fan of the Japanese Hoshigaki method (mine often mold, for one thing) nor do I love cutting persimmons into slices and drying them. While that does work ok- even with astringent varieties if you cut them up before they get soft- but they aren’t as sweet at that stage, and the texture of the final product isn’t that good to me.

So what I do is simple, though not very pretty. I let my persimmons fully ripen to the soft stage. I then pick them and pluck the stem off, leaving a hole in the top of the fruit. Next, I just squeeze the fruit from the bottom up, much like you would toothpaste in a tube. At this point, the whole inside of the fruit just sort of plops out onto the drying tray in a nice little pile. I will admit that its hard to get all the inside pulp and juice out so you do waste a very small amount of fruit left inside the skin.
Then I start drying. What you are left with is not very pretty. But It tastes like little disks of goodness. The taste and texture is best described as similar to thick, slightly chewy but soft in the center fruit leather pieces. The sweetness is unreal. It really ends up as persimmon candy, and is WONDERFUL!!! Here are some pics:

Here is the first first step, after you remove the tops and squeeze 0the “meat” out the inside of the skin into a little pile. This is before the dehydrator is turned on:

Here is what it looks like about half way through the drying process, after about 1/2 the water has been removed.:

Here is the final product after being dried on the tray.

and here is what they look like after being removed from the tray. I only put them on these paper plates to make it easier to see them. Obviously they are not very attractive, but holy cow are they good!

[mrsg47]

Actually, they look moist and tasty!

[thecityman]

Why thank you! Maybe I should just say they look unusual! But they are just little pieces of heaven. Hope things are well in France!

[jcguarneri]

Yum! That’s a nice workaround. I’m adding it to my list of things to try once my trees actually start producing.

[Itmaybejj]

Agreed across the board on flavor. At that point I usually give up on drying individually and squeeze them out into a mixer, puree them and make fruit leather. But yours would have more fun texture I suspect.

[Harbin]

Good idea, but I wouldn’t like to clean the messy trays afterwards. There are special liners for fruit leather to place on top of the trays. This is probably the easiest way to get rid of the skin and seeds before drying.

[Hillbillyhort]

Yes, parchment paper !

[cdamarjian]

This non-stick material is made for Excalibur dryers. Once the fruit leather is sufficiently dried on the Excalibur sheet, you can peel it off and finish drying on the tray beneath. Probably round-tray dryers have similar fruit leather sheets. No mess.

[Ahmad]

Kevin,

I agree with you that dried persimmons are super sweet, but I have a question for you: Is dried Saijo flavor still much better than say dried Hachiya?

I like dried Hachiya, but I don’t care for fresh, jelly Hachiya.

[Piblarg]

How does the flavor/texture of this method compare to Hoshigaki?

[thecityman]

This is great. Lots of fun comments. Thanks…

@Itmaybejj I absolutely love that idea of putting them in a mixer, puree, and making fruit leather. That is so similar to what I’m doing that I doubt the final prodiuct is much different. ANd here I thought I had devised some genius way of using fully ripe/soft persimmons, when you have been doing this already. My little piles may create something thicker than traditional fruit leather, but I’d say its very similar. I must say, though, that the thick part is my favorite part so you might enjoy this method too.

@jcguarneri I lose track of who has what around here but somehow I was sure you were already havesting persimmons, Jay. But yes, you REALLY should try this. It has brought the value of my persimmons to a whole new level. I’ve said many times that I think Saijo is my very favorite fruit I grow, but even with all the love I have for them, I can only eat so many as they are ripening. This allows me to use more of them and save them for later eating, as well as giving me a whole new way of enjoying this incredible fruit!

@Harbin AND @cdamarjian It is so funny you folks mention those liners. My last dehydrator came with one of those for each tray, and I loved them so much! And yes, they did make cleanup much easier. Sadly, I lost that dryer in a house fire and the new one I bought didn’t have those liners. Then along comes @Hillbillyhort with the great idea of using parchment paper for this purpose, so I definitely will be trying that. My other sheets had very small holes for air to flow through, though, so I’m wondering if parchment paper works as well? probably does.

@Ahmad I have to say, I really do believe the dried Saijo has a much better flavor than the other 3 I have tried, which are Fuyu (letting them get completely soft first) and chocolate, and Nikitas gift. I haven’t tried it with Hachiya because I lost my H tree to winter kill before I started doing this. I can’t really explain what it is that I like so much better about the dried Saijo flavor, but its much better to me. Then again, I also like the fresh Saijo best so maybe that is just the flavor I like. Nakitas gift is close, but not as good. But that is just my tastes.

@Piblarg I have to say, I prefer this method considerably to Hoshigaki, HOWEVER, I’m not sure I’ve ever got my Hoshigaki to turn out as good as it should. They often get some mold on them for one thing. And mine never get quite as dry as the method described above, so the texture of the Hoshigaki that I’ve made is a big more soft and not quite as concentrated. But let me say again, in all fairness, that I don’t feel real good answering this question because I don’t think I’ve mastered making perfect Hoshigaki yet, so to compare my dried “lumps” of fruit made in my dryer to hanging them on a string and air drying may not be a fair comparison. I can only say that for me the dehydrated mounds of fruit are better than the naturally dried whole ones that I’ve made.

[Robert]

@Hillbillyhort

Yes, parchment paper !

Would pre-cut pieces of parchment paper work for all fruit drying? I find that no matter what I dry they stick and trays are a pain to clean.

[Hillbillyhort]

I often use parchment paper, and reuse parchment paper.
There is a point in time when the fruit is dry on top , but has not yet stuck to the paper.
That is when to turn fruit over.
Fruit leather can be pealed off and turned
I seldom dry directly on the racks / screens, yes hard to clean.
You need to allow room for air flow

[jcguarneri]

Sadly, none yet. I’ve got a bunch of little twigs out there right now, so a few more years. In the meantime, I can enjoy watching what y’all are up to and keep jottingng down ideas

[trev3411]

Very interesting post. Our 2 year old Fuyu/Jiro has enough fruit this year for us to try dehydrator recipes. We did sliced pieces and really enjoy those as a starter. I may try fruit leather on very ripe ones too.

[TheWoodFarm]

What kind of persimmons do you have @thecityman ? Those look delicious and I think my kids would love them.

[thecityman]

Hi Chris, welcome to the forum! I have a several persimmons. If you read my post with the photos, I have listed the name of each persimmon so you know which one looks like what. And yes, your kids would LOVE LOVE LOVE them- especially Saijo which my favorite by a large margin. Good luck. Don’t forget to go to the “Welcome to Scott’s forum” to introduce yourself and say hello. Its also good if you put your location on your profile - at least the state- so we know where you are. Zone 6b doesn’t narrow it down very much, though its the same as mine here in North middle TN.

[mth]

Did you get your persimmon trees locally or mail order? I’m looking for Hachiya.

[thecityman]

mail order. if you look, there are a list of online vendors somewhere on this site. Someone with a better memory than me might leave you a link to where the list of nurseries can be found here.

[mth]

I’ll do a search, thanks.