How Gotgam Is Made Step by Step — The Traditional Process Behind Korea's Dried Persimmon

Most foods reveal their making in the eating. You can taste the fat in a braised dish, sense the fermentation in a well-aged kimchi, read the heat in a charred crust. Gotgam is different. By the time it reaches the table — dense, sweet, dusted in white, its surface yielding under slight pressure — almost nothing about it suggests the months of cold air, repeated handling, and careful judgment that produced it. The finished object is quiet. The process that made it is not.

Traditional Korean dried persimmons (gotgam) hanging in rows, naturally dried to a rich amber color

Carefully air-dried persimmons transform into gotgam, a sweet and chewy Korean winter delicacy

Making gotgam is not complicated in the sense of requiring specialized equipment or rare ingredients. It requires one fruit, one climate, and a sequence of steps executed at the right time, in the right order, with consistent attention over several weeks. What makes it demanding is precisely that consistency — the fact that the process cannot be rushed, cannot be automated in its traditional form, and cannot be salvaged easily if the conditions or the timing go wrong. Understanding how gotgam is made is, in large part, understanding why it was valued.

A realistic close-up photo of a Korean artisan's hands peeling a fresh orange persimmon with a small curved knife, long continuous peel spiraling downward, wooden work table surface below, warm natural daylight from a side window, fine craft documentary photography style

Peeling is done by hand, in a single continuous motion
— the technique affects how the fruit dries

Choosing the Right Fruit

Not all persimmons become gotgam. The fresh persimmon varieties sold for immediate eating — the crisp, sweet dan gam types that can be eaten like an apple — are not suitable for the drying process. Gotgam requires astringent varieties, whose high tannin content makes them inedible when fresh but provides the structural integrity and sugar concentration necessary for proper drying.

The primary varieties used in traditional gotgam production are the bansi (반시) persimmon, associated with Sangju in North Gyeongsang Province, and the dungsi (둥시) variety used in Cheongsong and other producing regions. These varieties share certain characteristics that make them suited to the process: firm flesh that holds its structure during weeks of drying, high sugar content that concentrates effectively as moisture is removed, and skin tough enough to survive repeated manual handling without tearing.

Harvest timing matters significantly. The persimmons are picked in late October to early November, after the first cold air arrives but while the fruit is still fully firm — not yet beginning to soften on the tree. Fruit picked too early lacks sufficient sugar development. Fruit picked too late, when softening has begun, will not hold its shape through the drying process. The harvest window in a given year is narrow, and experienced producers read the fruit and the weather together to determine the right moment.

Peeling: The First Critical Step

Once harvested, the persimmons are peeled before hanging. This step is more consequential than it might appear. The skin of a persimmon, if left intact, would prevent moisture from escaping the interior evenly, creating a surface that seals over before the inside has dried and resulting in a product that is hard outside and unpleasantly moist within.

Traditional peeling is done by hand using a small curved knife, removing the skin in a single continuous spiral that takes the entire outer layer off in one piece without puncturing the flesh beneath. This technique, practiced until it becomes automatic, is faster and cleaner than it looks when executed by an experienced producer. The goal is a smooth, intact surface — one that will dry evenly and develop the characteristic texture of finished gotgam without irregular patches where skin was left or flesh was damaged.

The calyx — the leaf-like structure at the top of the fruit where the stem attaches — is left intact. It serves as the attachment point for the string or hook that will hold the persimmon during drying, and removing it would create a wound at the top of the fruit that could introduce moisture and compromise the drying process from the start.

In large-scale production operations, mechanical peeling equipment is used for volume efficiency, but traditional and premium producers continue to peel by hand, arguing that the quality of the surface — smoother, more consistent, less likely to crack during drying — justifies the time investment.

Hanging and the First Drying Phase

Peeled persimmons are tied or hooked onto long horizontal poles or ropes stretched across open drying structures — wooden frames with roof covering but open sides that allow cold air to circulate freely. Each fruit is spaced away from its neighbors. Contact between fruits during drying creates moisture traps that lead to mold — one of the primary failure modes in gotgam production.

Traditional Korean gotgam drying farm with rows of persimmons hanging under a wooden shelter

Hundreds of peeled persimmons hang quietly in the cold autumn air, slowly drying into gotgam at a small rural farm in Korea

The drying structures are oriented and positioned to maximize exposure to dry moving air. In the mountain regions of North and South Gyeongsang Province where most traditional gotgam production is concentrated, the winter air is cold, dry, and consistent — conditions that draw moisture from the hanging fruit steadily without the humidity swings that would encourage mold growth. The altitude of these regions, typically between two hundred and six hundred meters, contributes to the temperature and dryness of the winter air.

A realistic wide establishing photo of a traditional Korean gotgam drying farm in late autumn, hundreds of peeled persimmons hanging on long horizontal wooden poles under an open wooden shelter structure, pale winter mountain sky behind, dry golden hillside visible in background, cold still air suggested by the scene, rural documentary photography style

Each fruit hangs with space around it
— airflow determines whether the drying succeeds or fails

During the first week to ten days of hanging, the persimmons lose a significant portion of their moisture rapidly. The surface begins to darken from orange toward amber-brown. The flesh, still firm at the core, begins to yield slightly at the surface. This initial phase is when mold risk is highest — the surface is wet enough to support growth, and any fruit that develops visible mold must be removed immediately to prevent spread to neighboring fruit.

Producers inspect their hanging fruit daily during this phase, removing compromised fruit and monitoring conditions. Temperature drops that bring frost are generally beneficial — cold slows mold growth and accelerates moisture removal from the surface. Warm humid spells are the enemy, and producers in years with unusual late-autumn warmth face significantly higher failure rates.

Massaging: The Step That Defines the Texture

After the initial surface drying has progressed — typically around ten days to two weeks after hanging — the first round of manual massage begins. This is the step that most distinguishes traditional gotgam production from simple air-drying, and it is the step that experienced producers credit most directly for the quality of the finished product.

Each persimmon is taken down from its hanging position and pressed and kneaded gently between the palms, working from the outside inward with consistent pressure. The goal is to break down the fibrous structure of the flesh beneath the now-partially-dried surface, encourage the interior moisture to redistribute toward the surface where it can continue to evaporate, and prevent the flesh from hardening into a dense, dry mass that would produce a tough rather than soft finished product.

Done correctly, massaging produces a fruit that feels uniformly yielding throughout — no hard core, no pockets of undried flesh, no surface cracks. Done incorrectly — too hard, too early, before sufficient surface drying has occurred — it tears the skin and creates openings that disrupt the remainder of the drying process. The correct pressure is learned through practice and cannot be fully conveyed in written instruction. It is one of the primary areas where experienced producer judgment matters most.

The massage cycle is repeated at intervals of roughly one week throughout the remainder of the drying period — typically three to four rounds in total across the full process. Each round addresses the current state of the fruit, which changes as moisture continues to leave. The pressure applied in the third round is different from the first because the fruit itself is different — drier, denser, less yielding at the surface.

The White Powder and What It Means

Somewhere between four and six weeks after hanging, depending on conditions and variety, the surface of the drying persimmons begins to show a white coating. It appears first in patches, then spreads gradually across the entire surface until the finished gotgam is uniformly dusted in white.

A realistic macro photo of a finished gotgam surface showing the dense white powdery bloom coating the deep amber-brown dried persimmon skin, soft diffused studio lighting, extreme close-up showing fine crystalline texture of the natural sugar coating, fine art food photography style

The white bloom is the fruit's own sugar — its appearance signals that the process has been completed correctly

This coating — called sikhae in Korean — is composed of fructose and glucose crystals that have migrated from the interior of the fruit to the surface as moisture carried them outward during evaporation. As the surface moisture evaporated, the sugars it carried were left behind and crystallized. The white bloom is not mold, not added coating, and not a processing step — it is the visible record of the fruit's sugar content and the moisture movement that occurred during drying.

The appearance and density of the white bloom is read by experienced producers as a quality indicator. A uniform, dense white coating across the entire surface suggests that moisture removal was even throughout the fruit — that the massaging was effective, the drying conditions were consistent, and the interior of the gotgam has reached the right moisture level. A patchy or thin bloom suggests uneven drying, which typically correlates with uneven texture in the finished product.

Producing the bloom requires a specific final phase in the process. After the main drying period, gotgam are moved to a cold, dark indoor space — traditionally a cellar or an unheated storage room — where low temperatures and low light encourage the surface crystallization without further significant moisture loss. This indoor phase typically lasts two to three weeks. The transition from outdoor hanging to indoor storage is timed by the producer's assessment of the fruit's readiness — another judgment call that accumulated experience informs.

Storage and the Finished Product

Properly made gotgam, once the bloom has developed fully, has a moisture content low enough to resist spoilage at cool temperatures for several months. Traditional storage was in cool, dark spaces that maintained low humidity — root cellars, shaded storage rooms, or in very cold regions, simply unheated outbuildings during winter months. Under these conditions, gotgam stored from the autumn production period would remain in good condition through winter and into early spring.

The texture of a well-made gotgam at the point of consumption is one of its most distinctive qualities. The exterior is slightly firm under the white bloom — the dried surface provides gentle resistance. The interior yields immediately, dense and smooth, with a concentrated sweetness that is not cloying because it is accompanied by the slight astringency and complexity that the tannins of the original fruit, transformed by drying, contribute to the flavor. The white coating on the surface dissolves almost immediately, releasing its sweetness before the interior flavor develops.

This textural and flavor sequence — surface resistance, immediate interior yield, layered sweetness with background complexity — is the result of every step in the process working correctly together. A gotgam that was not massaged properly may have a hard core. One that dried too quickly may lack interior moisture and feel uniformly tough. One that bloomed in humid conditions may have irregular crystallization and uneven sweetness. The finished product is, in a literal sense, the sum of all the decisions made across six to ten weeks of production.

Why the Process Has Not Changed

Modern food production has developed efficient methods for drying fruit at scale — industrial dehydrators, controlled-atmosphere storage, chemical treatments to prevent mold. Some of these technologies have been applied to persimmon drying in commercial operations. But the gotgam that commands the highest prices and the strongest regional reputation in Korea — the jiri gotgam of Hamyang, the bansi gotgam of Sangju — is still produced by the traditional outdoor hanging and hand-massage method, in the same mountain climates, on the same seasonal schedule, by producers whose knowledge of the process comes from having done it repeatedly over many years.

This persistence is not simply nostalgia or marketing. The traditional process produces a specific result — a texture, a flavor complexity, a surface bloom character — that industrial methods have not fully replicated. The cold mountain air, the extended timeline, the manual intervention at each stage, and the natural crystallization process together produce something that accelerated drying cannot. The process has not changed because it still produces the best outcome, and the market for premium gotgam continues to reward that outcome.

For a food whose value was built on patience and geographic specificity, it is perhaps appropriate that the method of making it has remained, at its core, exactly what it always was — cold air, careful hands, and time.

FRANVIA explains everyday life in Korea — not as a destination, but as a place people actually live.

Thank you for reading FRANVIA.

I hope each post helps you feel closer to the real Korea.

You can continue with more FRANVIA stories below.