Kitchen

[chickenbutt]

In the hope that this might help somebody else as much as it helped me, I thought I'd share this information I found online.

One day my store had these BIG, beautiful, POM brand pomegranates for a good price and I snagged three of them. I love pomegranates but just as much as I love them, I always HATED getting the seeds out.

I saw a chef mention, months ago, to just do it under water (pomegrante goes under water, like in a big bowl, you don't) and it's not messy. That didn't appeal to me, so I thought I'd search around and found, among other things, this -

http://lifehacker.com/5895852/deseed-a-pomegranate-in-10-seconds-using-a-wooden-spoon

This guy is kind of an idiot at explaining it efficiently, but it's very easy with very few steps, and it's pretty easy to understand. (sorry, the easy link thing here doesn't work for me anymore) Oh, and ten seconds is a bit of a stretch. I did three huge poms in about ten minutes total.

I'll go on to make it easy to set yourself up. All you need is two bowls, one for your seeds and one for the waste (or just one bowl and a trash can nearby), a couple paper towels or a kitchen towel nearby (if you're klutzy like me), a big wooden spoon, and a decent knife (I just used a 5" Santoku).

Just take the pomegranate and cut it, around the equator, just in enough to go through the skin. You'll feel it, so it's not difficult or ominous.

Then you take your fingers and pry the pomegranate open. It will split naturally, so no seeds get ruined like when you cut through the whole thing. I have arthritis and it was easier than I'd have expected.

Then take one half and kind of loosen it up around the outside. Then just hold it, seeds down, over your bowl and spank it with the wooden spoon. Just go around and around it until most of the seeds are in the bowl.

I stop every now and then to pick out the white stuff that sometimes falls out, just so I don't have to dig through there and do it all at once.

When 99% of the seeds are out you'll just see a few of them in the nooks and crannies. By then you've beat up the outside enough that it's really pliable, so it's super easy to bend it out and grab those last few seeds.

Then do the same thing for the other half. VERY little mess! I put a black apron (of course I have a black apron. ha!) on just in case. I tend to be a klutz so I did make a little mess, like when I would drop the half pomegranate on the counter. But it's so much less messy than cutting the whole pomegranate (all the way through) in half and tediously digging the seeds out.

This, as any thread I start, will probably sink like a rock but if it helps one person I'm glad.

I feel like, now, I will buy a pomegranate any time I want because I don't have to think of the dauntingly messy task of getting the seeds out.

[Lucky Charm]

I'm intrigued! I've never bought a pomegranate, but have eaten them. Someone else did the seeding, prepping. Didn't realize it was so daunting a task. They are so good for you and so good.

Any tips on making sure you get a perfect one when buying at the grocery store? Are they kind of like cantelopes.....you don't know till you cut into it?

[rainyinnorthwest]

CB...Thank you....Thank you...Thank you! I am like you I love Pomegranates just a mess too get the seeds out. I have one left so will be giving this a try.

[mustbuyless]

Thank you, OP! I just seeded one this morning- wish I'd read this before. I buy them regularly but take a long time to actually eating them- but no more. What a great solution.

[Tootie15]

Funny you should mention this. I was watching a show on HGTV yesterday and they showed the "underwater" process to seed a pomegranate ... no thanks, it was very messy! The wooden spoon way seems so much easier. Thank you for posting!

[chickenbutt]

On 12/21/2014 Lucky charm said:

I'm intrigued! I've never bought a pomegranate, but have eaten them. Someone else did the seeding, prepping. Didn't realize it was so daunting a task. They are so good for you and so good.

Any tips on making sure you get a perfect one when buying at the grocery store? Are they kind of like cantelopes.....you don't know till you cut into it?

Oh, it is a major pain to seed them the old way AND messy. I would tape up paper towels all along the wall, counter, and other things ON the counter and still make a huge mess.

I choose one that is a nice, dark, red color without much brown and no soft spots. You want it to be nice and firm, not at all squishy. There is probably better information out there.

[chickenbutt]

On 12/21/2014 rainyinnorthwest said:

CB...Thank you....Thank you...Thank you! I am like you I love Pomegranates just a mess too get the seeds out. I have one left so will be giving this a try.

Oh I know! I HATED getting them out.

Just try to cut it as close to the middle as possible so you have two fairly even parts and you have the ideal situation. It's actually kind of fun! If you choose a bowl that is a little deeper than you need, you can preclude pretty much any splatter by holding it part of the way beyond the top of the bowl.

[chickenbutt]

On 12/21/2014 mustbuyless said:

Thank you, OP! I just seeded one this morning- wish I'd read this before. I buy them regularly but take a long time to actually eating them- but no more. What a great solution.

Oh darn! I thought about this the other day, too. But I didn't get around to doing the three I had until today.

I'm going to start buying them a LOT more. After the last time I had a couple of them to seed I just was not up to the task. Once my husband found some pom seeds at Costco in these little plastic containers and bought us a couple. That was a delight because I didn't have to think about making a ginormous mess and taking way too long to do them myself.

[chickenbutt]

On 12/21/2014 Tootie15 said:

Funny you should mention this. I was watching a show on HGTV yesterday and they showed the "underwater" process to seed a pomegranate ... no thanks, it was very messy! The wooden spoon way seems so much easier. Thank you for posting!

Yeah, something about the idea of waterlogging everything just didn't appeal to me. That was what made me decide to look online and see if there were other ideas.

I saw another video where a lady cut the top and bottom off and manually did the seeding but I had a feeling I'd make more of a mess than she did and this one sounded good. This was the first time I tried it and I'm sure glad I did!

[feline groovy]

Hooray!

Thanks very much, Chicky; I've been a lover of pomegranates since I was a kid.

BTW, Edy's makes their yummy "Outshine" frozen fruit bars in this flavor, and the taste is pretty darn close to an actual pom. I stock up on them whenever I can and enjoy them year round.

No way will this thread "sink", as it's extremely helpful and super-positive. Plus, many of us have experienced the frustration of trying to seed a pom!