I find both varieties at the local grocery store but far prefer the large, more robust variety pictured in the second photo. (Roughly the size of a large plum or medium nectarine)
Firm persimmons are nice in a salad and have a texture like a firm melon. Not much in the way of exceptional taste.
HOWEVER…
If permited to ripen thoroughly. And I mean so ripe that if it were a tomato, you’d probably be throwing it out because it would be overripe. A fully ripe persimmon should feel like a very very soft plum. The skin will still be intact and feel like the skin of a tomato.
How to prepare:
Gently wash.
With gentle twist, remove the crown green leaf which will be pretty dry and hard.
Using very sharp knife, cut into four sections along the vertical axis of the fruit.
How to serve:
I find an asian design inspired plate adds ambiance and ceremony.
Serve at room temperature.
How to eat:
Cradle the quarter piece between thumb and fingers like you’d eat a slice of orange or grapefruit with the rind still on.
Raise to mouth BUT instead of biting into slice seal lips around top sliced edge and gently but firmly suck up the flesh of the fruit.
Why:
For those fortunate enough to have tasted the female genitalia, will instantly recognise the texture and oral feel of the labia. The fruit’s flavour will only enhance the experience.
We had an American persimmon tree at our house when I was growing up. For a special experience, locate yourself a green one and take a chomp. The unique mouth puckering sensation is priceless and disturbing. I used to give them to unsuspecting people whenever I could.
I LOVE persimmons, also called “Sharon Fruit” in Israel. If you let them get really mushy, they taste like butterscotch. I wash them very carfully and eat the whole thing, skin and all.
Being a lover of exotic fruit, I eagerly took up the challenge from the waiter at the Thai restaurant to try an ice cream made with Durian fruit. More info He described the fruit as tasting like butterscotch pudding and smelling like sewer gas. Who could resist a combination like that? Turns out, me and my whole table. Perhaps with a bad cold the fruit might be palatable, but with fully functioning nose, I found it as foul-tasting as it was foul smelling. Maybe you need to live in Bangkok to appreciate it.
I love persimmons. Love them love them love them. Years ago I worked at a restaurant where the pompous idiot head chef insisted that they were not edible, ever, and that I was WRONG about eating them. He said they were only decorative. So the next day I brought in a basket of ripe ones, cut them up, and served them to everyone during the meeting where the entire staff sits and listens to the chef go over the day’s specials.
Durian . . . yum. I love it. Every time I get Vietnamese food I get a durian shake and the server always, always, raises an eyebrow and asks, “Are you sure? Do you know what it is?” And then they always giggle and say that it’s very smelly. Not to me! It’s YUM.
There are two types of persimmon. The one kind is known as the non-astringent type and is quite firm when ripe, somewhere between a melon and an apple. They can be eaten in hand like an apple when ripe, packed in a bookbage without damage, etc. They only seem to have appeared in the US in the last 5 or so years.
The other kind is as described by Quicksilver. They should be pretty soft and squishy, or else there are devastating results to the eater euphamistically called an “astringent” sensation in the mouth: imagine all possible moisture being sucked out, leaving only a very gritty, highly bitter flavor that you can’t wash out with water.
Since all the persimmons I ate as a child were of the astringent type, eating persimmons has always held a thrill of danger to me.
I’ve seen persimmons here in Seattle for many years and don’t they grow well in the south? Anyway, I hadn’t ever tried one until about five years ago when some Asian co-workers offered me some of theirs. The skin looks so much like that of a tomato I aways, unreasonably, expected them to taste like that. It was nice but didn’t really get me excited over them. Maybe I gotta try the really, really ripe ones.
One of my co-workers also offered to let me try some durian cookies. I just wanted to see if it smelled as bad as I’ve heard. Even in cookie form, it did. Should have tried tasting it but I didn’t.
