How To: Seed a Pomegranate

While I was in college, I fell in love with Pom iced teas. They were bottled in glass cups which could be reused and they were delicious. I loved the peach one, especially. Ironically, I'd never seen a pomegranate in real life until just a few years ago. I'd only had the juice. I don't know why either, because fresh pomegranates are delicious. They have this weird reputation of being annoying to "dissect," which confuses me because I think they're easy to take apart. Let me show you!

Here's what a pomegranate looks like. It's like a humongous Christmas ornament. You'll want to start by trimming off the bottom, carefully scooping out the stem, and then scoring the fruit longitudinally. I score along the raised ridges. The ridges are rather subtle, but once you look for them, they start to look pretty obvious.

So here I am, trimming off the bottom, carefully cutting out the stem, and then scoring around the fruit. Once the fruit is scored, you'll be able to pull it apart into segments, almost like an orange.

Get a big bowl of cold water ready.

Grab one of the segments, hold it under water, and carefully pull the seeds apart from the membranes. Use a gentle hand, otherwise the juice squirts out all over the place.

The reason for the water becomes rather clear: the seeds sink and the white membrane (which I think looks so creepy - like beehive honeycombs) floats.

After just a few minutes. you'll end up with empty rind pieces and a bowlful of pomegranate seeds.

Use a little strainer to grab the membrane pieces.

And then, all that's left to do is to drain the seeds.

The seeds can be consumed within a few days but if you need them to keep well for longer, you can stick them in the freezer. In a slightly unconventional turn of events, I'll be sharing some cocktails in another post today - one of which includes pomegranate - so watch out for that!

Cheers.