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Yes, I realize I spelled the name of this fruit two different ways in the title. According to some internet searches, either spelling is acceptable.
My aunt and uncle in town (Austin, TX) have a persimmon tree in their backyard, and have offered me the fruit from the tree a couple years running. Last year I accepted less than a dozen, having no Idea what to do with the fruit.
After the leaves had browned and fallen off the tree, the fruit were hanging there, beautifully, bright yellow and orange. I wondered how there could be so little bird/insect damage to such beautiful fruit... The fruit, it turns out is very astringent in quality before it is fully ripe. If you've ever had a taste of alum powder which makes your lips involuntarily pucker up; or chewed on sandpaper just for the fun of it, you know the feeling "astringent" creates in your mouth.
The astringency disappears when the fruit is actually "fully ripe." My problem with a fully ripe persimmon is that, while it tastes much better, it has the texture of a banana better suited for making banana bread than eating raw. That is to say, it tasted pretty good, but felt like I was eating 'rotten' fruit. Most of my internet research showed that persimmon is best preserved by drying whole, but I was determined to find a persimmon jelly recipe... the color is just so nice.
"The Joy of Cooking" cookbook mentions that persimmons can be preserved by a hot-pack canning method, but has nothing of making a persimmon jelly in the jellies section. The only recipe I found on the internet was more of a jam or butter by definition with the body/pulp of the fruit preserved in the gel rather than a true jelly made by two separate cooking processes and utilizing only the juice. I actuallly found about 3 different recipes, but they were all very similar and had just slight variations. The original (as far as I can tell) can be found here.
A warning story using the above recipe with under ripe persimmons can be found here.
Even as I write this introduction, I haven't come up with a truly satisfying result, but in the 3rd re-work of the batch, I've come close once (and that time almost an accident) and need to get my processes down before I forget what they were, so...
... without further ado, I present The Great Persimmon (jelly) Experiment
My aunt and uncle in town (Austin, TX) have a persimmon tree in their backyard, and have offered me the fruit from the tree a couple years running. Last year I accepted less than a dozen, having no Idea what to do with the fruit.
After the leaves had browned and fallen off the tree, the fruit were hanging there, beautifully, bright yellow and orange. I wondered how there could be so little bird/insect damage to such beautiful fruit... The fruit, it turns out is very astringent in quality before it is fully ripe. If you've ever had a taste of alum powder which makes your lips involuntarily pucker up; or chewed on sandpaper just for the fun of it, you know the feeling "astringent" creates in your mouth.
The astringency disappears when the fruit is actually "fully ripe." My problem with a fully ripe persimmon is that, while it tastes much better, it has the texture of a banana better suited for making banana bread than eating raw. That is to say, it tasted pretty good, but felt like I was eating 'rotten' fruit. Most of my internet research showed that persimmon is best preserved by drying whole, but I was determined to find a persimmon jelly recipe... the color is just so nice.
"The Joy of Cooking" cookbook mentions that persimmons can be preserved by a hot-pack canning method, but has nothing of making a persimmon jelly in the jellies section. The only recipe I found on the internet was more of a jam or butter by definition with the body/pulp of the fruit preserved in the gel rather than a true jelly made by two separate cooking processes and utilizing only the juice. I actuallly found about 3 different recipes, but they were all very similar and had just slight variations. The original (as far as I can tell) can be found here.
A warning story using the above recipe with under ripe persimmons can be found here.
Even as I write this introduction, I haven't come up with a truly satisfying result, but in the 3rd re-work of the batch, I've come close once (and that time almost an accident) and need to get my processes down before I forget what they were, so...
... without further ado, I present The Great Persimmon (jelly) Experiment
DSCF5469.AVI2 MB
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Signing UpStep 1Tools and ingredients.
Tools:
1 large (8 quart) , heavy bottomed, non reactive (Stainless steel or enamel) stock pot or sauce pan for cooking fruit.
Strainer
Jelly bag, muslin cloth, or other such cloth suitable for straining the juice from the cooked fruit.
1 medium (3-4 quart), heavy bottomed sauce pan for cooking the jelly
1 candy thermometer.
6-8 pint jars with lids
Wooden or stainless spoon
Large, flat bottomed, pan for boiling water bath, or canning processor
Ingredients*
30 persimmons that look "ripe" but are not truly "persimmon ripe"**
4 cups water for juice extracting process
1/2 cup water (approximately -- to bring juice quantity to an even 6 cups)
3 cups sugar
6 TBS Lemon Juice
1 packet Sure-Jell Certo liquid pectin***
Heaping portions of patience and determination (read stubbornness)
Willingness to experiment and accept contradicting information.
* as this has been an experimental process, all the ingredients I have used show up here, but may or may not show up in a final summative recipe... assuming I come up with one I'm satisfied with.
** approximately 3-4 pounds, the persimmons I used were picked still firm with a very little "give" when squeezed and placed in a bowl with an apple (I've heard this helps them ripen post harvest) At the time of juicing, they were still firm, but when pressed with the thumb would 'bruise'. Also at the time of juicing, some astringency remained, but they were starting to sweeten - see also the introduction where astringency and persimmon ripeness are discussed
*** The closesttosatisfactoryversionIhavetodate does not have the commercial pectin in it. This version came out thicker than honey at room temperature, serves as the model for the AVI video dripping off the knife in the introduction, and does not make bread soggy, but doesn't quite "feel like jelly" to me.
1 large (8 quart) , heavy bottomed, non reactive (Stainless steel or enamel) stock pot or sauce pan for cooking fruit.
Strainer
Jelly bag, muslin cloth, or other such cloth suitable for straining the juice from the cooked fruit.
1 medium (3-4 quart), heavy bottomed sauce pan for cooking the jelly
1 candy thermometer.
6-8 pint jars with lids
Wooden or stainless spoon
Large, flat bottomed, pan for boiling water bath, or canning processor
Ingredients*
30 persimmons that look "ripe" but are not truly "persimmon ripe"**
4 cups water for juice extracting process
1/2 cup water (approximately -- to bring juice quantity to an even 6 cups)
3 cups sugar
6 TBS Lemon Juice
1 packet Sure-Jell Certo liquid pectin***
Heaping portions of patience and determination (read stubbornness)
Willingness to experiment and accept contradicting information.
* as this has been an experimental process, all the ingredients I have used show up here, but may or may not show up in a final summative recipe... assuming I come up with one I'm satisfied with.
** approximately 3-4 pounds, the persimmons I used were picked still firm with a very little "give" when squeezed and placed in a bowl with an apple (I've heard this helps them ripen post harvest) At the time of juicing, they were still firm, but when pressed with the thumb would 'bruise'. Also at the time of juicing, some astringency remained, but they were starting to sweeten - see also the introduction where astringency and persimmon ripeness are discussed
*** The closesttosatisfactoryversionIhavetodate does not have the commercial pectin in it. This version came out thicker than honey at room temperature, serves as the model for the AVI video dripping off the knife in the introduction, and does not make bread soggy, but doesn't quite "feel like jelly" to me.
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I too am looking for ways of using persimmons, did you check Farmerjeff's hoshigaki (dried persimmon) instructible?