Random Food Questions Thread - Page 387

What the hell.

Yeah, kakis need to be completely ripe (very very soft). Sharons on the other hand are perfectly edible when they're still hard. They can look very similar and are often labeled wrongly...

Well, I did not know any of this. The one I am looking at has a sticker that does say fuyu on it.

Give it a try, I guesss. You could also try to make a small hole and slightly stick a cake tester in, then taste the juice that sticks to the cake tester. If it tastes ok you should be good to go in case the persimmon is still firm. If it's astringent, leave it.

i have a fuyu tree in my front yard and that makes me an expert. seriously, there is still a bit of astringency in them, particularly when they are underripe (of course, it's hard to tell ripe from underrripe since they don't soften until the very end).

This talk of persimmons reminds me of taking a fuyu as a snack to school and getting razzed for eating a "little pumpkin." Also remember quite vividly the terrible mouth-drying astringency y'all are talking about. Ahh, the joys of growing up Korean.

It doesn't affect me as much when I eat them without the peel. Perhaps the peel is the problem.

Tannins are usually more highly concentrated in peels, so that would make sense.

Have a persimmon (kaki) tree in the back yard, don't know what variety, but they should be called Yummy variety. Only seems to fruit every second year. I've never seen anyone in Japan eat the skins.

I pickled some. They are nice pickled.

Anyone give this a go? I want to try making Peking duck at home and wonder how this easier method really compares.

http://mobile.seriouseats.com/2010/09/the-food-lab-how-to-make-peking-duck-at-home.html

Are any of the meat grinder/sausage stuffing attachments for KitchenAid mixers worth buying? The KitchenAid brand ones seem kind of cheap and mostly plastic and the nicer metal ones are pretty expensive. Does anyone have any experience with them or have other recommendations?

http://www.styleforum.net/t/148784/home-made-sausage-cured-and-smoked-meats/0_50

At least a few folks here using their Kitchenaid

How much do you plan to grind? A decent hand crank model (unfortunately it sounds like quality control has gone to shit in recent years) will be solid metal, have a good set of interchangeable plates, easily go in the freezer and stay cold, and unless you are doing a ton of meat all the time...its not that much work to hand crank.

I probably won't be using it too often, so there's probably no need for a big commercial grade setup. For around $50 I can get the plastic KitchenAid attachment versus the all metal ones which seem to be around $140-170. At that price I could get a higher quality dedicated grinder/stuffer but don't know if it's even worth the money/space for the few times a year I might use it.