Osage Persimmon Cakes

By Andrea Hunter, Osage Tribal Historic Preservation Officer

Ingredients:

Persimmons
Buffalo grease

Go to the woods and collect as many persimmons as you can. Build a fire. Using a small woven screen made from saplings, separate the seeds from the pulp. Do this by grating the persimmons against the screen, this causes the seeds to fall through the screen leaving the pulp behind. Mold the persimmon pulp into small cakes. Take a wooden drying board, about 9 inches wide and 18 inches long with a handle, and apply buffalo grease. Layer three or four persimmon cakes on the drying board and hold over an open fire until the first persimmon cake layer is about cooked. Then remove the cake and cool. When the cake is completely cooled they can be stored. These cakes will last until the next season.