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1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground mace

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans, walnuts, or black walnuts

1 cup wild persimmon pulp

½ cup milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly coat a 9 × 5 × 3-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and salt together into a large mixing bowl. Add the pecans, toss well, then make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

3. Combine the persimmon pulp, milk, eggs, and melted butter in a small bowl; pour into the well in the dry ingredients and stir only enough to combine.

4. Scoop the batter into the pan, spreading to the corners, and bake on the middle oven shelf for about 45 minutes or until nicely browned, springy to the touch, and a cake tester inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

5. Cool the loaf in the upright pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, loosen around the edge with a thin-blade spatula, then turn out on the rack and cool to room temperature before slicing. Note: This bread freezes well. Wrap snugly in plastic food wrap, overwrap in aluminum foil, date, label, and store in a 0° F. freezer. Serve within 3 to 4 months.

MANGO-PECAN BREAD

MAKES a 9 × 5 × 3-INCH LOAF

I picked this recipe up years ago on one of my many trips to the Sunshine State and am ashamed to say that I don’t remember the source. As a food and travel writer, I am forever collecting leaflets and brochures, many of which contain uncredited local recipes. In any event, this is my tested version of this unusual Florida quick bread. Tip: Because mangoes—even dead-ripe mangoes—are so fibrous, the best way to mash them is to pulse in a food processor. Aim for a texture that approximates cottage cheese.

2¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour

¾ cup raw sugar or granulated sugar

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

½ cup seedless raisins

1 cup coarsely mashed fresh mango (you’ll need one 14-to 16-ounce mango; see Tip, which precedes)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat a 9 × 5 × 3-inch baking pan with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the pecans and raisins, toss well, then make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

3. Combine the mashed mango, eggs, oil, and vanilla in a 2-quart measure; pour into the well in the dry ingredients and mix only enough to combine. The batter should be lumpy.

4. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, spreading to the corners, and bake in the lower third of the oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until the bread begins to pull from the sides of the pan and a cake tester inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

5. Cool the bread in the upright pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then loosen around the edge with a small thin-blade spatula and turn out. Cool the bread right side up to room temperature before cutting.

* * *

PECANS

The Creeks store up the last [hickory nuts] in their towns…They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid…[the hickory milk] is as sweet and rich as fresh cream, and it is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially homony [sic] and corn cakes.

—WILLIAM BARTRAM, TRAVELS OF WILLIAM BARTRAM, ON A VISIT TO GEORGIA, 1773

The pecan is a type of hickory and it’s possible that the nuts Bartram observed were actually pecans. Anyone who’s tried to crack a rock-hard hickory nut and pry out the measly bits inside knows that if pecans were growing in Georgia at the time of Bartram’s visit, the Creeks would surely have chosen them. One good