December 23, 2012

What Has Become of My Dried Persimmons (Hoshi Gaki), Continued/私の干し柿はどうなったか(続き)

Continued from this post
ここからの続き

I brought all the other dried persimmons to the kitchen, wondering what to do with them.  I searched the Internet for an answer.
残りの干し柿を全部、台所に持って来て、どうしようか考えました。ネットで答えを探しました。
Eureka!  Freezing persimmons will remove astringency from them!  I put the permissions in the freezer right away.  Today, about one week later, I asked my son if he wanted to try one.  Of course, I told him about the possible risk!  My son had it, and said it was good!  He soon took two others out of the freezer and had them, too.

見つかりました!柿を冷凍すると、渋が抜ける!すぐに柿を冷凍庫に入れました。約一週間後の今日、息子に試してみないかと尋ねました。もちろん、リスクは説明しました!息子は食べ、美味しいと言いました。すぐに冷凍庫からまた二つ出して、食べました。
I'm really glad that I didn't throw them away.
NOTE:  If you freeze fresh astringent persimmons, it will take one month or longer until the astringency is removed from them.
捨てなくて、本当に良かったです。
注: 生の渋柿を冷凍する場合は、渋が抜けるのに一ヶ月以上かかります。

3 comments:

Fräulein Trude said...

Interesting but somehow logic. We have some sort of edible wild plum fruits called blackthorn or the fruits: sloe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa) you should collect first after some deep freezing due to the harsh winter. Before freezing the fruits taste awfully adstringent (lots of tannin) afterwards sweet and delicious. Most of the times the birds are quicker than me.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Thank you for the link. The Japanese entry for blackthorn says that pickling it in vinegar will make it similar to umeboshi. Is that true???

There are several ways to remove astringency from persimmons:
1. Using alcohol.
Takes about one week, and results in the best-tasting persimmons.

2. Soaking in hot water (around 40C) overnight
Easiest way but will make the persimmons less tasty than other methods.

3. Freezing

4. Using carbon dioxide (or dry ice)

5. Putting in container of rice or rice bran

6. Sealing in a bag with one apple

Fräulein Trude said...

Sloes remind on sweet cherries when frost bitten. Without frost they are firm, very sour and adstringet and really small - just like cherries. But maybe pickled as umeboshi they would turn out just marvelous. It is the same plum family and they have lots of bitter almond flavour. If I ever get hold on some sloes I will try vinegar pickling (the birds are really quick in picking). I life in a nature reservation area, wildlife, beautiful landscape but lots of hungry birds...