How to Eat a Persimmon—and How to Know if Yours Is Ripe

Heralded by Halloween and headed for Thanksgiving, beautiful persimmons appear at the market in fall, just in time to become the best holiday decorations: the edible kind. Perhaps you're already a fan and wait all year for this seasonal treat. If you've never tried them, we encourage you to give persimmons a chance. Their unique flavor and texture are worth it. Here, we show you how to choose a ripe persimmon and the best ways to eat and enjoy the different types of persimmon.

Persimmons Explained

Persimmons appear in the market in the fall. The persimmons we see in stores are cultivars of a tree native to East Asia, Diospyros kaki—and may have been imported from there, too. Persimmons are also grown commercially in California or imported from Europe or South America. There are also persimmons grown in the Southern Hemisphere. Those fruits will arrive in the United States out of season, around late spring.

Most commercially available persimmons are broadly distinguished by two different shapes and names. Knowing which type you have is key to understanding when a persimmon is ripe: One is inedibly astringent when firm, while one is sweet.

Fuyu

Squat, tomato-shaped fruits with flattened bottoms are collectively referred to as Fuyu persimmons. If a persimmon can rest comfortably on its bottom, it is a Fuyu.

How to Tell if a Fuyu Is Ripe

First, Fuyus should be a bright orange color (they are sometimes sold while under-ripe and pale). A few days on a kitchen counter should be sufficient to bring them to bright orange if they aren't. But is a Fuyu firm or soft when ripe? Remember this: Fuyu, flat, firm. You can bite into and slice a firm Fuyu just like an apple. They are delicious firm and remain delicious once they become soft.

How to Eat Fuyu Persimmons

Fuyus are good to eat sliced into salads and on crostini, dried as chips, braised with pork for dinner, or simply peeled for a sumptuous dessert.

Hachiya

The other widely available persimmons are the acorn-shaped Hachiya cultivars, which are elongated with pointy bottoms. Stood up on its end a Hachiya would topple over (they are always displayed points-up).

How to Tell if a Hachiya Is Ripe

If you bite into a firm Hachiya you will recoil: Unripe Hachiyas are horribly tannic. These persimmons are sweet only when squishy-soft (when they will taste wonderful).

How to Select and Store a Hachiya

Squeezing Hachiyas ruins them for others, including the seller. Choose Hachiyas without blemishes and keep them at room temperature until they are deeply orange and soft. This can take over a week.

How to Eat a Hachiya Persimmon

The best way to eat a soft, ripe Hachiya is to freeze it for a few hours (or overnight) until solid. Remove the fruit 15-20 minutes before you want to eat it. As the outside of the persimmon thaws slightly, a glittering coat of frost forms on the skin. Cut off its top, and you'll have instant persimmon sorbet! It is the easiest dinner party dessert ever, and it's so dramatic in its simplicity.

Alternatively, cut the fruit in half and scoop out its flesh with a spoon. The intensely flavored pulp is also a very good baking ingredient: Make a persimmon tart for fall comfort.

A Third Persimmon: Rojo Brillante

Not as widely available as the Fuyu or Hachiya, there is a hybrid of Fuyu and Hachiya marketed as Rojo Brillante. It's thought to be a natural variant that occurred in Spain before being cultivated elsewhere. It's easy to confuse these fruits for Hachiya persimmons because they have a similar pointy shape.

How to Tell if a Rojo Brillante Is Ripe

The Rojo Brillante persimmon is ripe when firm—even though it looks a lot like elongated Hachiyas. For commercial purposes, the fruit is often artificially ripened using a carbon dioxide treatment. Look closely for a tiny label with their name so you don't end up biting into an astringent Hachiya!

Native North American Persimmons

The persimmons native to North America are not available commercially, but you may find them at farmers' markets or have a tree in your garden.

• Not everyone knows the small-fruited native American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana. The ripe, soft fruits smell like roses and ripe apricots. They are a fruit long enjoyed by Native Americans and the first persimmons used in early colonial persimmon puddings and breads.
• Further south and west, and into Mexico, Diospyros texana turns glossily black when ripe.

To preserve windfalls of either native persimmon, work the ripe fruit through a food mill after puréeing to remove seeds and freeze the pulp for later use. It is like soft taffy, and very aromatic.

How to Use Persimmons

One of the oldest ways of preserving persimmons is to make the East Asian delicacy known in Japanese as hoshigaki. Peeled persimmons are suspended from strings to dry and massaged gently to distribute the sugars. When they are brown, with a powdery coat of sugar crystals on the outside, they are ready and will be delectable. Hoshigaki are prized as holiday gifts and keep indefinitely.

Persimmons also shine in recipes from savory appetizers to salads and desserts, as our collection of persimmon recipes shows.