Hongsi Persimmon Jam

Hongsi Persimmon Jam

I love hongsi. It’s a flavor of autumn, both because of its availability and its fleeting nature of it. It’s a delicacy that’s bountiful in all of Korea for 2 weeks, then disappears since it goes bad quickly. 

But to prolong the abundance of fall and the taste of hongsi, I decided to make jam! 

To make jam with hongsi, you need to understand the fruit’s characteristics. So a couple of fun facts I realized while developing this recipe (with the help of umbrella man, aka my boyfriend) is that the fruit has a lot of pectins. 

Pectin is a fiber found in fruits. It’s a gelling agent that makes jam, jam. When we were doing the first batch of persimmon jam, we were surprised to find it gelled so quickly, even with low amounts of sugar. After digging into some research, we found out that persimmons have so much pectin that back in the day, people would add it to thicken stews and other jams. 

So no need to add pectin or gelatin to persimmons. We will stay simple with three ingredients: hongsi, sugar, and lemon. 

*You can also use regular persimmons, not hongsi! Just make sure to alter the recipe so that the fruit-to-sugar ratio is 1:1

Ingredients

• 500g or 6 hongsi
• 250g or 1¼ cup sugar 
• 20g or 1 tbsp lemon juice (½  Lemon)

Directions

• Place the hongsi on the cutting board with the stem facing down. A sharp knife or bread knife makes a cross-cut on the skin. See the video for reference.
• Gently pull the skin off on all sides of the hongsi
• Cut the bottom of the fruit and remove the seeds before placing it into a heavy-duty pot. 
• Add sugar and lemon juice. 
• Blend the mixture with an immersion blender until homogenous to ensure even cooking and shortened cook time. You want to make sure the jam doesn’t cook for a long time to retain the color and essence of the fruit. 
• Heat mixture on medium. Make sure to stir constantly, so the bottom doesn’t burn. Since there is high sugar content, the mixture will be prone to caramelizing and burning fast. 
• Bring the temperature up to 85C or 185F. This is to activate the pectin, aka the gelling agent, so that our hongsi jam doesn’t have a runny-nose-consistency. 
• While waiting for the jam to reach temperature, sterilize the jars and the lids in boiling water. This process ensures that the jam is shelf stable, and if done properly, your jam can last years. Save the hot water since you will need it again. 
• When the jam reaches temperature, blend again. At this point, the jam should have thickened, and if not, heat for additional 5-10 minutes. 
• Ladle the mixture gently into the sterilized jars and close the lid tightly. 
• Back to the pot of boiling water, submerge all the jars with lids facing down. Pasteurize for 15 minutes to make sure the jams are full-proof, pasteurized and shelf-stable. 
• Enjoy! 

Hongsi "Persimmon" Jam

4 from 21 votes

Recipe by Doobydobap Course: CondimentsCuisine: FusionDifficulty: Easy

Yields

1.8

kg

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

I love hongsi. It’s a flavor of autumn, both because of its availability and its fleeting nature of it. So I made jam out of it!

Ingredients

• 500 g or 6 hongsi

• 250 g or 1¼ cup sugar

• 20 g or 1 tbsp lemon juice

instructions

• Place the hongsi on the cutting board with the stem facing down. A sharp knife or bread knife makes a cross-cut on the skin. See the video for reference.
• Gently pull the skin off on all sides of the hongsi
• Cut the bottom of the fruit and remove the seeds before placing it into a heavy-duty pot. 
• Add sugar and lemon juice. 
• Blend the mixture with an immersion blender until homogenous to ensure even cooking and shortened cook time. You want to make sure the jam doesn’t cook for a long time to retain the color and essence of the fruit. 
• Heat mixture on medium. Make sure to stir constantly, so the bottom doesn’t burn. Since there is high sugar content, the mixture will be prone to caramelizing and burning fast. 
• Bring the temperature up to 85C or 185F. This is to activate the pectin, aka the gelling agent, so that our hongsi jam doesn’t have a runny-nose-consistency. 
• While waiting for the jam to reach temperature, sterilize the jars and the lids in boiling water. This process ensures that the jam is shelf stable, and if done properly, your jam can last years. Save the hot water since you will need it again. 
• When the jam reaches temperature, blend again. At this point, the jam should have thickened, and if not, heat for additional 5-10 minutes. 
• Ladle the mixture gently into the sterilized jars and close the lid tightly. 
• Back to the pot of boiling water, submerge all the jars with lids facing down. Pasteurize for 15 minutes to make sure the jams are full-proof, pasteurized and shelf-stable. 
• Enjoy! 

Recipe Video

Notes

• You can also use regular persimmons, not hongsi! Just make sure to alter the recipe so that the fruit-to-sugar ratio is 1:1

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