Gam (persimmon), gotgam and hongsi

Gam is the East Asian persimmon (Diospyros kaki), long cultivated in China and recorded in Korea from the thirteenth-century medical text Hyangyak gugeup bang. Early Joseon records already note persimmon growing in Goryeong. Korean persimmons fall into two broad groups. Sweet persimmons (dangam), such as Fuyu, can be eaten crisp. Astringent persimmons (tteolbeun gam) are mouth-puckeringly tannic until they have fully softened or been dried. That astringency comes from soluble tannins held in tannin cells in the flesh; as the fruit ripens or is treated, the tannins bind into insoluble forms and the puckery taste disappears.

The nineteenth-century glossary Mulmyeong-go lists a whole vocabulary of persimmons. Hongsi (紅柿) are astringent persimmons picked and left in a warm place until they soften to a jelly-like, deep-orange pulp; geonsi is the dried persimmon, gotgam; and the white bloom of sugar that forms on dried fruit had its own names. Chimsi, persimmons soaked in salted water to remove astringency, were another old method. Persimmon is one of the three essential fruits of the ancestral-rite table, and when fresh fruit was out of season, gotgam took its place.

Gotgam is made by peeling firm, not-quite-ripe astringent persimmons and drying them in sun and wind for weeks, traditionally skewered on bush-clover sticks or hung by the stem. The name is usually traced to that skewering (kkotda, to stick or skewer). Sangju in North Gyeongsang Province, the "land of three whites" (rice, silkworm cocoons and white-frosted dried persimmons), has been famous for it since at least the fifteenth century, when the Sejong sillok jiriji lists persimmons and dried persimmons among its tribute. Sangju gotgam is made mostly from the native round dungsi variety, and "Sangju traditional gotgam farming" was designated a National Important Agricultural Heritage in 2019. Cheongdo, south of Daegu, is known for Cheongdo bansi, a flat, seedless astringent persimmon (bansi means "tray persimmon") registered as a geographical indication in 2010. It is prized for hongsi and also dried into gotgam and gamtaraegi strips.

Persimmons are eaten fresh, frozen and dried. Gotgam is wrapped around walnuts as gotgam-ssam, studded with pine nuts as a garnish, used in rice cakes and porridge, and soaked in the cold, ginger-scented punch sujeonggwa, garnished with pine nuts. Leaves are made into tea, and persimmon vinegar is a regional specialty.

• Vitamin C and fiber: Per the Korean Food Composition Table, fresh sweet persimmon provides vitamin C and fiber; soft hongsi is a little richer in beta-carotene.
• Dried fruit is dense: Drying concentrates sugar. Semi-dried gotgam has nearly four times the calories of fresh persimmon by weight, so it is best enjoyed in small amounts.
• Persimmon bezoars: Eating large amounts of persimmons, especially unripe or astringent ones, can rarely cause tannins to bind into a hard mass in the stomach (a diospyrobezoar) that may block the intestine. The risk is higher in older adults, people with diabetes and people who have had stomach surgery. Moderate portions of fully ripe fruit, rather than many at once on an empty stomach, are the sensible approach.
• The white bloom is sugar: The powdery white coating on well-made gotgam is natural fruit sugar that rises to the surface as it dries, not mold. Fuzzy, colored or damp spots are a different matter and should be discarded.