Persimmon Pudding

Wild American persimmons — small, puckery, and unpalatable until frost hits — became sweet and honey-like after the first freeze. Mountain families collected them in October for persimmon pudding, a dense, spiced pudding eaten as dessert or packed as a sweet lunch item. Unlike the giant orange Japanese variety, wild persimmons were the size of large marbles, and their flavor was uniquely American.

Ingredients

• 2 cups wild persimmon pulp (collected after first frost, seeds removed by pressing through a sieve)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk

½ cup butter, melted

• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ginger

¼ tsp cloves

• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. To prepare persimmon pulp: collect wild persimmons after frost. Remove stems. Press through a sieve or food mill, discarding skins and seeds.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

1. Mix persimmon pulp, eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt.
3. Mix wet and dry ingredients together until smooth.
4. Pour into prepared dish. The batter will be quite thin — this is correct.
5. Bake 60–70 minutes. The pudding will set into a dense, fudgy, dark brown slab.
6. Cool completely. Cut into squares. Wrap in wax paper for the lunch pail.

Notes

Wild persimmons are ONLY edible after hard frost — before that, they contain tannins that cause immediate mouth puckering. The Hachiya persimmons from grocery stores work as a substitute. Persimmon pudding is dense, dark, and complex — somewhere between gingerbread and figgy pudding. Extraordinarily shelf-stable.