Now seems a good time to put up a question I got about a week ago from reader Kati: I’ve been curious about English-style puddings for years now but I’m told most of them have things like beef fat in them, which doesn’t like anything I’d want to eat. If puddings are supposed to be […]
READ ONSome 10 years ago now, when the missus and I were footloose and fancy-free, we packed up our car and took a three-week road trip to what Northerners like to call the “Deep South.” It was a mysterious place to us, and we feared it a little. Until that point in our lives, neither one […]
READ ONReader Linda writes in with this discovery she made at a Whole Foods in Nashville, Tennessee: After reading your posts on knishes last week, I was absolutely amazed to find knishes on the hot food bar at Whole Foods! They not only had the traditional one, but a veggie version as well and they looked […]
READ ONPudding is a problematic word for the dessert taxonomist. For depending on where you happen to be in the English-speaking world, it can mean quite different things. In England the word “pudding” can stand for just about anything sweet, especially if it’s eaten after the main meal. What we in the States would call “dessert.” […]
READ ONPuddings are as much a method as they are a food. Making a pudding requires a vessel specially made for the purpose: a pudding mold (the standard is a 2-quart, which is what this recipe calls for). You’ll also need a pot that will contain the mold with the lid on. A deep dutch oven […]
READ ONIt’s obvious, right? The hachiya persimmon on the left is bright orange, firm and smooth while the one on the left is darker and starting to look like a balloon with some of the air let out. The skin looks a little loose, plus it dimples under the slightest pressure. That persimmon is ready to […]
READ ON…you can drink persimmons too? Plenty of Americans in the East and Southeast once did. As mentioned, persimmons, when ripe, are incredibly sweet fruits. Only dates contains more natural glucose. And where there is sugar there is (at least potentially) alcohol, yes? Those who were with me through last month’s posts on apple cider know […]
READ ONOr at least that was the conventional wisdom back around the turn of the century in American persimmon country. Most people, it seems, had either forgotten or never knew all the potential uses for the persimmon. One region that never seems to have forgotten is southern Indiana. Especially the town of Mitchell, which hosts a […]
READ ONNot the cartoon character, the writer. Some scholars speculate that the persimmon was the fruit that the “lotus eaters” ate in The Odyssey. As you may recall from high school lit class, the land of the lotus eaters was one of the stops Odysseus made on his meandering trip home from Troy. On landing, his […]
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