They’re round, they’re orange, they’re squishy and sweet.
Of course, we are talking about persimmons, the quintessential fall fruit in the Midwest.
Jackie Bea Howard is back with us, and she has an unexpected take on cooking with persimmon.

Jackie works here at WFIU, but she has cooked professionally for many years. Jackie’s approach to cooking involves intuition, eye-balling measurements, and lots and lots of tasting! She’s developed her methods through years of cooking on the fly, and we’ll hear a little of her story on this week’s show. She has tips for building flavor in a dish, and insights on tasting, and on knowing what to add, depending on what you’re tasting, when.

But if you’re not ready to fly without a net just yet, we jotted down Jackie’s recipes, including a variation featuring another Indiana native fruit, the pawpaw.

This story originally aired on September 28, 2018.

Check out all the other great persimmon recipes we’ve featured over the years:

Persimmon Panna Cotta
Persimmon Pudding
Peppered Persimmon Donuts, with Persimmon Glaze
Persimmon Waffle
Persimmon Jam

Search “persimmon” in the “search Earth Eats” box to the right (on this page), in case I missed something.