Creating Hoshigaki: A Traditional Japanese Process

Ideally, when placing persimmon pairs over the broom handle, it is recommended to use pieces of bamboo that are wide enough so that the twine does not touch the fruit. However, if such a piece of bamboo is not available, alternative methods can be employed. For instance, little slips of cardboard can be used as a crutch to spread the top portion of the twine apart and prevent the fruit from touching each other. This technique proved effective in our experimentation, ensuring that the persimmons dried evenly without any issues.

Air circulation is crucial for drying out the fruit, and placing them in front of a window provides the necessary airflow. It is also important to avoid damp environments, such as basements, and darkness, as these conditions can lead to mold growth. The inherent astringent nature of unripe persimmons appears to play a significant role in deterring mold development during the drying process.

A traditional method of preserving persimmons involves briefly dipping them into boiling water or alcohol before drying. However, none of the tutorials we reviewed recommended this step, and we opted to proceed without it. Fortunately, our experiment proved successful, with no issues arising from mold growth. The natural antifungal properties of the fruit seem to have prevented any problems during the drying process.

As the persimmons dried, a thin skin began to form on their outer surface within a day or two. Initially, they retain their vibrant orange color and appear quite cheery. As they continued to dry, they darkened in hue and started to shrink. Gently squeezing them at first was essential to avoid liquefying the inside of the fruit, which can result in moldy persimmons.

Once the initial stage of drying had passed, it became possible to knead the fruit slightly harder without causing it to become droopy or moldy. As the hoshigaki continued to dry, they eventually darkened and shriveled up, taking on a leathery yet tender texture. After about four weeks, a white dustiness began to appear on their surface – a characteristic feature of these preserved persimmons.

The finished product has an incredible appearance, with its rugged, gnarly texture and distinctive white coating. These natural sugars that are released from the fruit during the drying process add a unique dimension to hoshigaki's flavor profile. When cut open, they reveal their interior – the taste of which is surprisingly pumpkin-like, evoking the essence of fresh persimmons or ripe hachiya.

Six weeks after creation, our hoshigaki were finally ready for tasting. As we bit into them, we discovered a deliciously autumnal flavor with hints of pumpkin and the unmistakable sweetness of fresh persimmons. The texture was remarkably resilient yet tender, defying expectations despite its rugged appearance. While hoshigaki may appear intimidating due to their dark color and dusting of sugar, they are truly delightful once experienced.

For those interested in trying this traditional Japanese process for themselves, we highly recommend giving it a shot. Witnessing the gradual transformation of persimmons into these beautiful, leathery fruits is an experience unlike any other. With patience and dedication, one can create their own hoshigaki at home – a true labor of love that yields rewarding results.

HelloFresh sponsored this video, and we would like to extend our gratitude for their support. For those who'd like to try HelloFresh for themselves, click the link provided or visit hellofresh.com, where they will find up to 16 free meals and three surprise gifts. In return, use the code EMMYMADE16 at checkout. We hope you've enjoyed learning about this traditional Japanese process as much as we have – please share your thoughts in the comments below, like this video, subscribe, and join us for our next culinary adventure.

(Additional Footnote: The author is grateful for HelloFresh's sponsorship, which allowed her to create this article. For more delicious recipes and cooking tips, be sure to explore HelloFresh's website.)

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(light playful music)- Greetings, my beautiful lovelies!It's Emmy.How are you?It's great to see you and welcome back.Today's video is sponsored by HelloFresh,which brings pre-portionedfresh ingredientsright to your doorstep,so you can prepare a homemademeal in about 30 minutes.HelloFresh has tons ofrecipes to choose from.It's a great way tobreak out of recipe ruts.It's also a great way to reach your goalswith simple recipes, low meal prep,fresh ingredients that comeright to your doorstep,which means fewer tripsto the grocery store,which in the end saves you a ton of time.HelloFresh offers awide variety of options,including Quick & Easy, whichincludes 20 minute meals,low prep, and easy clean up.The packaging HelloFreshuses to send you your foodis already recycled content.HelloFresh also makes eating well easierwith options like familyfriendly, calorie smart,pescatarian, and vegetarianoptions every week.And this week, my family's favorite recipewas the Curry Spice Chickpea Bowls.So if you'd like to tryHelloFresh for yourself,go to HelloFresh.com anduse my code EMMYMADE16for up to 16 free mealsand three surprise gifts.Big thanks to HelloFreshfor sponsoring this videoand for their continued support,so I can make bettercontent for all of you.Now, today, I am gonna share with yousomething I started over six weeks ago,and it is for hoshigaki.Now, I've wanted to make this for so long,ever since I saw them hangingfrom windows and balconieswhen I lived in Japan.Hoshigaki is something thatI've always wanted to tackle,to attempt, to try, and to taste.I've done none of these things.Today, I'm finally goingto give hoshigaki a taste.Hoshigaki are dried persimmons,also known as kaki in Japan,and it is not reallya painstaking process,but more of a processthat requires a good amount of patience.Now, in a nutshell, theprocess is taking persimmons,which are a late fall fruit,peeling them and prepping them,and then allowing them todry, while kneading them dailyso that they dry evenly,so you get a very sweetand lovely dried persimmon.Now, the use of the word lovelyis definitely in the eye of the beholder,because the resulting hoshigakiis very dark in color,almost black and coveredwith this white kind of dust,which looks a little bitlike mold, but it is not.It is actually natural sugarsthat come out of the persimmonthrough the drying process.And I wouldn't judge youif you looked at thatand you'd said, hm, Emmy,I think that's a little susbecause the white on the outsidedoes look a bit like mold.But it is not, I assure you.And today I'm finally going totaste my homemade hoshigaki.But first, let me walk youthrough all of the steps I didsix weeks ago to arrive tothe point we are at today.Let me take out my notes firstand get to the page ofhoshigaki, which is right...These are my notes.These are the things that I did.Persimmons are beautiful late fall fruit.In fact, in Japan and in Californiayou may see these baretrees and in the bare trees,on these seemingly kind of dead branches,you'll see this beautifulorange, almost red fruitpeppering the trees,and that is a persimmon.And now there are two types of persimmons.There's the hachiya and the fuyu.Now, the fuyu looks like this.It almost looks likea little mini pumpkin.Isn't that sweet?We used to have a couple ofthese trees in my yard as a kid.And my dad loved eating these.The fuyu are a little bit shorterand a little bit squatter,have the same bright orange coloring.But the biggest differenceis that the fuyu can be eatenhard and crunchy like an apple,which is the way my fatherpreferred eating them.But the hachiya, which I don't have,you can just try toimagine one right here,it's a little bit more pointed in shape.It's a little bit morekind of like a droop.That cannot be eaten hard.In fact, if you bite intoan unripe hachiya persimmon,you'll be met with a very terrible,puckery kind of sensation.They are not astringent, really.They're not edible at that point.And some people thatdo not like persimmonshas had that unfortunate experienceof biting into an unripehachiya persimmon.So those persimmons, on the other hand,have to sit at room temperature,the sepal side, that'sthe petal side, downand allowed to softenuntil they almost feellike a water balloon.The skin will get really, really thin.And the flesh beneath it willbe really pudding-y and soft.At that point, you can cut it openand then you can just scoop the flesh out.It's really great in baked goods.If you make kind of a persimmonspice bread or cookies,it's just lovely.Or you can just scoopit out and eat it as is.It's very sweet.It tastes almost pumpkin-y.It just kind of begs for anykind of spice accompaniment.It's absolutely lovely.So I ordered my persimmons.I believe I got themfrom Frog Hollow Farms.They arrived beautifully,packed in a bit of strawand they were firm.You cannot do this processwith ripe hachiya persimmons.They must be hard.So wash them thoroughly,dry them thoroughly.And then we're going to remove the sepals,which are the leafy kind ofportion of the persimmon.And I found the easiestway was just to gentlylift up on them.And that will reveal this kindof shoulder of the persimmon.It's also recommended towear gloves while handlingthe persimmons.Because they are so astringent,they can actually roughen up your handsand kind of make your hands very dry.So make sure they are protected.And then using a sharp paring knife,we're gonna create a shelf.We're gonna cut theshoulder off the persimmon.Cut right into it andgo all the way aroundand it will remove a littlekind of donut of fleshfrom the top and flatten it out.Next, you're gonna use avery sharp vegetable peelerand using one downward strokeand turning the persimmon,you're gonna carefully remove the peel.This can be anywhere from10 to about 17 strokesof your vegetable peeler.It's down to a science, honestly.So once you've peeled off all the skin,you'll reveal this beautiful orange fruit.You can place it into a muffin tin to waituntil you've peeled all of your fruit.Because this requires so much work,you might as well do a good bunch.I bought five pounds of persimmons.So once we've peeled all the persimmons,we need to tie two of them together.We're going to make a pair of them.Cut a length of cottontwine about 18 inches longand tie one end to thestem of the persimmon.Now, traditionally, the persimmons are cutfrom the tree with a littlebit of the branch on top,so it forms a little T,which is just perfectfor tying on the string.In my case, all of my stems,if I had any stems werejust standing upright,which isn't so great forcatching on to the cotton twine,but it still worked.So as best you can tie a verysteady tight knot to the stem.Now, if you're missing astem, like many of mine were,take some clean stainless steel screwsand then use a screwdriverand gently twist them intothe very top of the persimmon.So don't twist it all the way in.You want a little bitof the head popped outso you can tie on the string.Now that we've got two persimmons tiedto one length of string,we need to dry them.Now, a good place to dry apersimmon would be outsidein a nice sunny spot where theyget lots of air circulation.I considered doing this,but we have a lot of fatneighborhood squirrels aroundand I didn't want to feedthem, the fruits of my labor.I just used the handle of a broomstickand placed it in front of a window.And then I placed the persimmonpairs over the broom handle.Ideally, you would use pieces of bamboothat are nice and wide so thatwhen you drape the twine overthe fruit do not touch.So I just took little slips of cardboard,and I use that as a bit ofcrutch to spread the top portionof the twine apart so thatthe fruit didn't touchand that just worked beautifully.So if you don't have a bigpiece of bamboo or a big pipe,try using some cardboard.So leave the persimmons to dry.In front of a window is great.Air circulation is really important.So nowhere damp, no basements,no darkness, because again,air is our friend here.We want to dry out the fruit.So I found several tutorialsthat said to dip the persimmonsbriefly into boiling water before drying.Others said to dip them into alcohol.And as the drying process continues,they would dip them into alcohol,all to inhibit mold growth.I didn't do any of that.I watched a few videos on verytraditional hoshigaki making,and none of them dippedthem into anything.So I thought, fingers crossed,let's just try to do this aunaturel and it totally worked.And I'm assuming theinherent astringent natureof the unripe persimmonhas something to dowith deterring any mold growth.At any rate, I didn't haveany problems with mold growth.And then within a day, you'llsee that a thin kind of skinstarts to appear on theoutside of the fruit.And when you initially hangthem, they are so beautiful.They've just got such a vivid orange colorand they're just so cheery and gorgeous.And as they dry, they darken in colorand they start to shrink.After a week or 10 daysafter your persimmonshave been drying,very, very gently, in fact,in the very beginning,just barely kind of give them a squeeze.Now, the reason why we're doing this isit is to create an even texture.Initially, if you knead too hard,the inside will actuallyliquefy and you'll get droopy,moldy persimmons.And as the fruit continues to dry out,you can push a little bit harder,kneading the fruit,And subsequently, it getsdarker and darker in colorand the persimmons beginto kind of shrivel up.And after about four or five weeks,you'll start noticing thiswhite kind of dustinessand it is distinctiveand it is much coveted.And these are the naturalsugars that are coming outof the fruit.So, you know, when thehoshigaki are finished,when you no longer can knead them,and they're no longer squishy insideand they've got sort of thetexture of a dried apricot.And this is what they look like.Aren't they incredible?Isn't that kind of gnarly?That white stuff is not mold.So as you can imagine,hoshigaki are quite expensivebecause of how much laboris involved in creating them.And they are often eaten witha little bit of green tea.So, let's go ahead and cut one open.And that's what it looks like inside.Alrighty.Finally, six weeks later,let's give this a taste.Itadakimasu!Mm.Oh, that's lovely.It does taste a little bit pumpkin-y.Definitely autumnal.It tastes a lot like a fresh persimmonor a very ripe hachiya,but the texture is completely different.This is more leathery,resilient, yet tender.Delicious.I do admit that these looka little bit intimidatingwith their dark, darkcolor and dusting of sugar,but they are absolutely lovely.I highly recommend at least trying them,if not making them for yourself.It's such a wonder to seethem progress and to make themand just to see themhanging in your window.They're just so stinking cute.Bright orange, especiallyin the beginning.And cheery, and then justseeing them every dayand remembering, oh, I gotto squeeze my hoshigaki.(Emmy chuckles)Alrighty, my lovelies.Thanks so much for watchingand big thanks to HelloFreshfor sponsoring this video.If you'd like to tryHelloFresh for yourself,click the link down below orhead over to hellofresh.comand use my code EMMYMADE16 toreceive up to 16 free mealsand three surprise gifts.Thanks again for watching.I hope you enjoy that one.I hope you learn something.Please share this video with your friends.Follow me on social media,like this video, subscribe,and I shall see you in the next video.Toodaloo, take care.Bye!(light playful music)Mm!\n"