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Persimmon Recipes

(Diospyros virginiana: common, or American persimmon)

persimmonpudding.com

 Picture of branch with persimmons
Diospyros virginiana L. (common persimmon): History, Cultivation, Celebration and Culture, Natural History, Botany,  Health & Nutrition, Culinary Use (recipes), Commercial, Entertainment, News, Links, Sources, Home, Contact us!, 

"Plumbs there are of 3 sorts. The red and white are like our hedge plumbs: but the other, which they call Putchamins, grow as high as a Palmeta. The fruit is like a medler; it is first greene, then yellow, and red when it is ripe: if it be not ripe it will drawe a mans mouth awrie with much torment; but when it is ripe, it is as delicious as an Apricock."       - Captain John Smith, 1612

"...they are lushious sweet."      - Thomas Hariot, 1893

Below are the recipe links.  These pages are meant to form more than simply a persimmon cookbook, but a slice of our food heritage and genealogical connection to the lives of the people who recorded old family recipes. 

Note: all recipes have metric conversions below the US weights and measures. Should you find problems with these conversions, please let me know. 

Puddings (of course!) - not just for Christmas and Thanksgiving anymore!  Why wait for the holidays? 

Breads 

Cakes 

Candy  

Cookies 

Drinks 

Pies - includes a Euell Gibbons recipe for a pie he calls the "highest form of persimmon cookery"!

Other 


Bibliography of Culinary Use:

Fielder, Mildred.  1982.  Fielder's Herbal Helper: For Hunters, Trappers, and Fishermen.  Winchester Press, Tulsa, OK.  pp. 44-45.