How Do You Make Hoshigaki?

Hoshigaki are a type of dried fruit made by massaging a persimmon every day for weeks. Learn more about this traditional Japanese treat in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/hoshigaki.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, we've all been handed our fair share
of lemons lately. So enough already with the lemonade. As
time sprawls on with ongoing challenges and unhold potential, why

(00:22):
not grab it by its stem, ties, string around it,
and give another of life's astringent fruits a shot at
proverb status. When life hands you per simmons, make hushigaki.
A hushigaki is a type of dried per simon, Originally
a method of preserving the fall harvest for winter. Hushigaki

(00:42):
are a century's old Japanese delicacy that's easy to make
but is remarkably time and effort intensive. The week's long
process happens slowly, requiring patience, mindfulness, and almost microscopic attention
to detail, and a near daily practice of gently and
slowly massaging each percimon by hand. There are many species

(01:06):
and varieties of persimmons, though they tend to be about
the size and shape of a tomato, either squatly round
or more oval and sort of pointed, and are golden
to red to brown in color when they're mature. The
fruits are sweet and taste sort of rich, like squash,
with a little bit of fruity spice to them. You
can categorize persimmons into two main categories, a stringent and

(01:31):
non astringent. A stringency is the quality of things that
make you pucker. They taste drying and sort of bitter.
Non estringent per simon varieties like fuyu and gito can
be eaten fresh out of hand like an apple, or
peeled and sliced into any dish that you'd like peeled
sliced fruit in, either while they're still crisp or when

(01:52):
they're a little riper and thus softer and sweeter. They're
also dried in slices like apples or mangoes. These stringent varieties,
like one called hachia, have to be uber ripe to
be eaten fresh. They're essentially so puckery that they're inedible
until they're jelly on the inside, at which point you
scoop out that jelly and eat it straight or incorporate

(02:14):
it into desserts like puddings. You can take unripe hachia
and freeze them or blend them up and then incorporate
them into foods or drinks, probably with some sugar, but
the most famous way to make them palatable is by
making hushigaki. Hushagaki are made from ferm hachia with just
the right tat of softness and preferably a longish stem

(02:36):
still attached. Anybody can hypothetically make them. There's no one
exact right way, and people have lots of different tips
and techniques, and outcomes vary with the maker and the
year and the individual fruit. All you need is a knife,
some string, and hatchia per simmons, which in the US

(02:56):
can be found at many Asian groceries, California Farmer's Market,
and some supermarkets. You first peel the skin off each
hattia with a knife, leaving a little bit of skin
around the stem, and tie length of string around each
stem four persimons. Without a stem, you can sterilize a
stainless steel screw, screw it through the top into the
core and attach your string to that screw. Next, sterilize

(03:21):
each percimon by dipping it in boiling water for just
a couple seconds. Some makers will do a quick dunk
in vodka or brandy instead. You hang the persimons indoors
someplace warm and dry with good air circulation, like in
a sunny window, and leave them undisturbed for a week
to air dry. After a week, using a very gentle touch,

(03:42):
never squeeze, You press each persimon ever so gingerly once
a day, working your way up to a very light
daily massage. This soft coddling helps break down the pulp
and smooths the outside of the fruit, where wrinkles could
entrap moisture and harbor mold. It also forces out internal
air pockets and lets the natural sugars inside rise to

(04:05):
the surface of the fruit, where they eventually form a white,
powdery bloom, a sort of crust that looks like powdered sugar.
Over several weeks anywhere from as few as three weeks
to a few months, the fruit will soften and shrivel,
forming a craggy exterior with deep grooves in the folded skin.
At the end of the process, you gently roll the

(04:27):
hushigaki with a rolling pin to achieve even thickness and
get rid of any remaining air bubbles and VOILA a
time to test the literal fruits of your labor. If
all goes well, your hushigaki should be amber colored and firm,
but pliable, almost gummylike in texture, sort of like a
whole fruit petato fruit. The drying process brings out flavors

(04:51):
of honey and caramel and warm fall spices. They can
be stored in an airtight container and shared with your
most appreciative friends, or say, at your ledger, for up
to a year or more. Because of their labor intensive
creation process, pushikaki are expensive for a dried fruit. They
tend to run about five bucks apiece if you're buying

(05:11):
them instead of massaging them yourself. In Japanese tradition, they're
often given as gifts at New Year's or other winter holidays.
Pushadaki are often savored in small slices as a snack
alongside tea or incorporated into New Year's themed dishes, and
they're a lovely treat on a cheese or charcuterie plate.

(05:32):
You can find them online if you don't happen to
have any markets that carry them in your area. Today's
episode is based on the article when life pansy persimmons
make Koshigaki on how stuffworks dot com, written by Kerry Tatro.
Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how
Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four

(05:53):
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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