What can I do with the persimmon in my fridge?

December 11, 2004 6:26 PM

We have a persimmon in the fridge and I tried a piece of it tonight. It's very astringent and made my mouth dry. We Googled recipes for persimmon cookies and persimmon fudge, but are unsure of how well they'd turn out. Anyone know of something tasty we could make with this thing so it won't go to waste?
posted by dotComrade to food & drink (9 answers total)

A persimmon or a few cups of them? Can't really do much with one, I'd imagine. Also, they might not be quite ripe. The skin should be pretty soft and at least mildly sweet.

I personally think they'd taste pretty wretched with chocolate, but obviously someone out there thinks it would be okay.
posted by honeydew at 7:06 PM on December 11, 2004

It's not yet ripe.

Here's my knowledge of them (I eat a few a week):

1. don't put it in the fridge.
2. leave it on the counter to ripen. Can take over a week depending on what it was like when you bought it.
3. it's ripe when it looks bad--not rotting but when it's very soft to the touch. As in, you don't really have to squeeze it for it to be soft in your hand.

I slice mine and put it in with cottage cheese.

I avoided them for years because of an experience similar to yours a decade ago. I thought that that was what they were like.

Also, there are different kinds. I prefer the ones that are apple shaped on one end and pointed on the other, as opposed to the 'round' kind.
posted by dobbs at 7:07 PM on December 11, 2004

It was small, round, and light orange. There was a rotten spot on the bottom (cut it off) and the skin was quite soft, so I assumed it was ripe. It came in a pack of produce from the discount shelf, that's how we ended up with it - never had one raw before, just in pudding.

There's only one persimmon, and it's already cut up. I think it'd be maybe half a cup of pulp, so either recipe we'd have to halve to use. The fudge recipe doesn't have chocolate in it, but it does have a lot of sugar and dairy - I suppose to counter the astringency.
posted by dotComrade at 7:30 PM on December 11, 2004

My mother managed to make decent persimmon bread once in a while. Nothing else worked too well, as I recall. So long as you have a recipe that uses plenty of sugar, it can be quite tasty.
posted by honeydew at 9:10 PM on December 11, 2004

There are two type of persimmons commonly sold in the U.S., Hachiya and Fuyu. It sounds like you've got a Hachiya-type persimmon there (which also sounds like what dobbs is describing), which can be pretty astringent until they're fully ripe — at which point, in my experience, their texture seems almost overripe by other fruit's standards.

I've never had to deal with an underripe persimmon, though, so I don't know of any good way to make sure it won't go to waste. But hey, it was on the discount shelf — no big loss if you end up throwing it out, right?
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:48 PM on December 11, 2004

I had a persimmon tree in my backyard growing up.

Persimmons aren't pleasant to eat until they're the consistency of pudding. At that point, I recommend eating them like pudding.

Fridging them doesn't harm them but it does stop the ripening process.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:50 AM on December 12, 2004

Wild persimmons are not edible by human standards (and probably those of many mammals) until after the first hard frost. Perhaps you can try freezing the pieces as a last resort.
posted by mollweide at 7:39 AM on December 12, 2004

Persimmon preserves are excellent on toast with a sweet whipped butter.
posted by omidius at 8:30 AM on December 12, 2004

Harold McGee has an excellent method of ripening persimmons in his book "The Curious Cook". The technique he uses actually results in a fully ripe persimmon with a firm texture.
posted by barkingpumpkin at 11:44 AM on December 12, 2004