You Like Persimmons — You’ve Just Been Eating Them Wrong
Fall’s perfect snacking fruit, demystified.
There’s something utterly confounding about persimmons. When can I eat them? Why do the two varieties look the same? Why does this one taste like hell? How can I tell when they’re ripe? Why is everything in fall orange? Just wondering. Shout out in the comments if you have a legit science answer.
Although most of us don’t have a clue about these orange orbs, luckily our produce buyer over here at Good Eggs has the lowdown on what to look for in the perfect persimmon — the dos and don’ts, how you know when they’re good to eat, and what they’re good for.
Fuyu Persimmons
Fuyu are squat and tomato-shaped. They can be eaten at any ripeness stage — firm or soft. Both are delicious. Look at the skin color to tell if the fruit is ripe: it should be fully dark-orange and can even take on a red-orange tint when ripe. As long as the skin is a lovely dark orange and there are no green areas, you can go ahead and dig it. If there are still green spots on the skin, store in a paper bag in your pantry until they’re at the ripeness you prefer. They are lightly sweet when firm, with a sort of melon-y, pumpkin-y flavor. When they’re soft, they take on a much more intense sweetness. You don’t need to put persimmons in the fridge—they’re actually best stored in your pantry, and can last for a good while there.
Chop these into salads for lunch, or broil as an awesome fall side to any piece of meat. But most of all, eat ’em out of hand! Persimmons are the stone fruit of fall — take a big ol’ bite.
Hachiya Persimmons
Hachiya persimmons are a touchy topic for anyone who’s unwittingly eaten one unripe. They are picked firm, but need to be very, very (very) soft before they’re ready to eat. If you eat one firm, or indeed before it turns into pudding, you will get an awful, dry-mouth, chalky, astringent feeling. So patience be a virtue in this case. Store in a paper bag in your pantry until they’re jelly-like, the skin has taken on a translucent quality, and they’re quite a dark orange. They can even start to look a bit ugly — some black spots on the skin are perfectly normal and can actually be an indication that your hachiya is at prime ripeness.
Pro tip from Chris in the Good Eggs Kitchen: Hachiya persimmons naturally ripen after their first frost, which means they’re temperature sensitive, not time sensitive. To trigger ripening quickly, store them in the freezer overnight, and defrost in the morning.
Once ripe, lop the top off and dig in with a spoon. The mellow pumpkin-melon flavor is very similar here to fuyu, but the texture is like a mixture of custard and jam, and the pure sugary sweetness is impossibly delicious. You won’t believe anything tastes like this — then you’ll be addicted. Spoon it over oatmeal, yogurt, even toast — it’s basically jam candy, after all.
