Persimmon and Black Pepper Butter

Throw it under some venison or on a biscuit. This is an elite fruit we're talking about.

The ingredients:

• 5-6 Fuyu persimmons, diced

• 1/2 c. lemon juice

• 1 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 tbsp black pepper

• 2 dashes black walnut bitters

The process:

Trim and dice your persimmons and add to a food processor along with the lemon juice, maple syrup, and black pepper. Pulse into a puree. Add to a sauce pan on the stove on medium heat, until bubbles begin to form. Add walnut bitters and combine. Add additional black pepper, to taste. Strain twice through a fine mesh strainer before serving.

The story:

I got it in my head that I had to do something with persimmons.

The first time I tried one, I was probably 12 or 13 years old. My dad and I went on annual deer hunts, which was the best compromise we could come up with between going hinting every weekend (his preference) and never waking up before 8am (my preference). He took me to one of his favorite spots on Douglas Lake in East Tennessee so that I could kill my first deer. God bless him, he tried his best to find things about hunting that I’d like, despite me disliking waking up early, being in the cold and dark, and sitting still for extended periods of time. One that I still remember: persimmons.

Right before the sun would start to break, we’d arrive on “Big Island” to set up our spot. It was that kind of dark that, inexplicably, made everything just barely visible. After tying up on the bank, he took me to this tree with what looked like frosted, tiny peaches. He told me to pop one in my mouth (this took some convincing because my dad, among other words, is a rascal). What I experienced was a complex flavor that somehow conjured both the pumpkin-y sweetness and velvet texture of fall time and the fresh bite of a summer mango. And then after we ate a couple, we took the rest and rubbed them on our boots because apparently deer love a persimmon.

As I cook more, I find myself recreating memories with food. I went on a search for the exact persimmon I ate (still unclear what specific variant the little ones were), but I landed on the Fuyu persimmon, which seemed to be the closest in shape, texture, and taste that I could find. For the photo above, I used this persimmon butter as a base for pan-seared deer tenderloin. To really marry those flavors, I added extra black pepper—that was an essential flavor in our house growing up. And then, of course, I threw some bacon on top because, hello, bacon.

So this one is dedicated to dad, early mornings, and deer meat. For the record, you’ll notice that I said I hate hunting, but I surely did not say that I hate the meat that comes from it. I just prefer to intercept it in the kitchen instead of the forest at 6:12am, you feel me?