Autumn brings with it the khaki, but this year it's not just about jams and cakes. The protagonist of a new trend that combines tradition and attention to detail is thehoshigaki, an ancient method Japanese for dry persimmons. An art that, after conquering the United States, this ritual is slowly making inroads in Italy too, becoming a symbol of slow living and manual creativity.
What is Hoshigaki?
Hoshigaki is a process that requires patience and dedication. Persimmons come collected before full maturation, peeled and tied by the stem to a string. Hung in a well-ventilated and sunny place, they dry slowly for about a month. The peculiarity of this method is the daily massage: after the first week, each persimmon is gently handled to even out the consistency of the pulp and to help a thin layer of natural sugar form on the surface of the fruit. This process, which resembles the care reserved for Kobe beef, pushes the sugars outward, making the persimmon sweet, soft and intensely aromatic.
The result is persimmons desserts, soft and intense in flavour, far from the typical gelatinous nature of fresh fruit, and a rich and complex flavour, which recalls honey and flowers.
Hoshigaki: The Japanese Tradition That Conquers the World
Although Hoshigaki is practiced in Japan for centuries, but its charm has crossed national borders. In the United States It arrived between the 19th and 20th centuries with Japanese immigrants. However, only in the last two years has this tradition attracted a large audience, especially young people. Courses, workshop, also online, and tutorial su YouTube are frequented and followed mainly by millennials, who find in Hoshigaki a perfect combination of aesthetics and slowness. Poetic images of rows of hanging orange persimmons, which seem suspended in time, are popular on Instagram e TikTok, transforming this culinary technique into a social phenomenon.
In Italy, where drying is already a well-known practice for other fruits such as tomatoes, Hoshigaki finds fertile ground among those who appreciate a return to manual work and slowness. Ironic but significant, the drying process – slow and meditative – adapts perfectly to the rhythm of social media, which celebrates each phase with images and videos curated down to the smallest details.
Regional Differences: Japan, Korea, and China
Hoshigaki is not the only method of drying persimmons in East AsiaSimilar traditions also exist in South Korea, where the fruits are dried for two-thirds, deprived of seeds and compressed to obtain a flat shape, and in China, where the globe-shaped “fuyu” variety is used.
In Japan instead, the “hachiya” variety is preferred, acorn-shaped, characterized by a high concentration of tannins. The most renowned areas for production are Kōshū, in the prefecture of Yamanashi, and Minami Shinshu, in the prefecture of Nagano.
In Korea, the largest producers of dried persimmons are located in Sangju e CheongdoSangju persimmons, which account for 60 percent of the country's production, are considered an important agricultural asset in South Korea.
Industrially, especially in Korea, the fruits are often smoked with sulfur to speed up the drying process. This, however, clearly distinguishes them from Japanese Hoshigaki, where slowness and manual massage remain the core of the tradition.
Nutritional benefits and culinary uses
In addition to their aesthetic appearance and unique taste, persimmons dried using the Hoshigaki method also offer benefits nutritional. Rich in fiber, natural sugars and vitamins (A and C), they are a healthy and highly energetic snack. They also contain polysaccharides and antioxidants, which make them a functional food.
In kitchen, the Hoshigaki are extremely versatile:
- Perfect to enjoy on their own, as a healthy and natural snack.
- Ideal to accompany mature or semi-mature cheeses, offering a refined sweet-salty contrast.
- Excellent paired with yogurt, cereals or nuts for a nutritious breakfast.
- They can be used as an ingredient in sweets and desserts, thanks to their soft and sugary consistency.
While not reaching the mastery of Japanese craftsmen, Hoshigaki is a project that can be attempted at home. All you need is a balcony sunny or a well ventilated kitchen, a little patience and the desire to dedicate yourself to a process that values slowness.
The home process requires few tools: a pan to blanch the fruit, a sturdy string to hang them, and the determination to massage them every day.
Hoshigaki is not just a method of preserving persimmons, but a symbol of how seeds e modernity can coexist. In an era where everything seems to accelerate, dedicating a month to a culinary project that requires consistency may seem anachronistic. Yet, it is precisely this contradiction that makes Hoshigaki so fascinating: it is an experience that, like the fruit, grows and enriches itself slowly.
