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Though reader Brett Emerson wrote a nice piece on his blog about the way pomegranates symbolize autumn, we have to make a slight correction. Pomegranates are the cause of the rain and snow we're about to see.
Back in the day, Hades abducted Persephone while she frolicked in the fields. Boo on that, we say. Her mom, Ceres, goddess of the harvest, eventually found her and brought her back to the surface, but the plants up here withered while she searched. Unfortunately, Persephone got hungry while down under, and ate six pomegranate seeds. The garnet-colored teardrops came with a price: for each seed, Persephone had to spend one month in the underworld as Hades's bride. When she's underground, hanging with the dead, her mom gets all weepy and turns the earth cold again. A tip to our readers: Be wary when the Lord of the Underworld offers you pomegranates. We're full of practical advice here at SFist.
We understand Persephone's temptation. We look forward to the zingy, vibrant flavor of pomegranate seeds, though we'll warn you that we've found the occasional watery sample at local markets. You want a mouth-puckering acidity that just begs to be tossed into a salad or atop a roasted quail. Or follow Patience Gray's advice for the seeds in Honey From a Weed: "Eaten out of doors while walking; very refreshing, one sucks the delicious seeds and spits the kernel on the wayside." We imagine we'll put up some pomegranate vinegar soon, since it's so easy. Just steep 1 cup of seeds in 2 cups of good white wine vinegar for 8-10 days, and strain when the liquid tastes pomegranate-y enough.
Photos by Melissa Schneider
As much as we love the gem-like seeds, we more often smush them into juice. We've made grenadine in the past (see the WebTender recipe), but these days we like to reduce the liquid to a viscous mix of sweet and tart. Try it, as we did, with pancetta-wrapped duck breasts (no meat is so fatty that it can't use a little bit more). We paired our duck with a Loire red and pears poached in a rosemary-infused vinegar-sugar blend. Pomegranate molasses serves as a good substitute for this reduction, so keep an eye out for it at stores that cater to Middle Eastern clientele.
Pomegranate pairs well with blood oranges, cream cheese, and yogurt, and the fruit appears often in Mediterranean food: Just look at how often friend of SFist Fatemeh uses pomegranate in her recipes. We'd avoid pairing it with mint, though. Once Persephone got used to the Queen of the Underworld gig, she wasn't keen on her husband's straying eyes. When the nymph Mintho came a-calling and tempted Hades, Persephone transformed her into the fragrant herb we know today.
The Pomegranate Council of California (whose website intro might induce seizures) offers their technique for de-seeding a pomegranate, but Brett followed up his pomegranate exaltation with a chef's advice for easily removing the seeds. When we juice the seeds for cooking, we use a food mill, but cooks more often advise puréeing them in a food processor and straining out the seeds. If you want to drink the juice, we can't imagine you'll find a better technique than Fatemeh's: "roll that bad boy around on a counter until it's soft, punch a hole in the side, put your hands on either side, and suck the juice out as you squeeze." That's our memory of her comment, anyway. No matter what we do with them, however, we always seem to end up with little red dots on the floor, the cupboards, and our clothes. Our final advice for pomegranates? Wear an apron and keep paper towels handy.
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Pomegranates are delicious but so hard to enjoy. I found this peeling tip somewhere in the cookbooks: score the skin (or cut the pomegranate in quaters) and let it soak in cold water for 10 mins - the peels and white membrane are easily removed.
Also, if you just love the taste and can't bother, POM offers pomegranate juice. Yum, but don't spill.
Another way to extract the seeds from a pomegranate is to fill a large, clean bowl with water, then do the seed removal underwater. Keeping the fruit underwater will significantly reduce the splattering. The seeds sink while the inner membrane floats for easy separation.
Amy and Marc,
Thanks so much for the tips. I think the Pom Council's advice runs along your lines, Marc, but Amy's would seem to involve even less fuss.
I've used POM in the past, but I have that whole "Stop. Think. There must be a harder way." attitude. So I tend to juice them when in season.
I'm so glad pomegranates are getting their due... obviously, they are one of my favorite things, in all their forms -- whole fruit, juice and especially molasses.
I have a pleasantly cracked one sitting on the counter waiting for me now, in fact.
Oh, and that reminds me to mention the oft-overlooked obvious: the juice-sucking method doesn't work so well with cracked poms. ;-)
I never thought of using a food mill to extract the juice from the seeds (arils). Sounds like a great idea! The folks at Bates and Schmidt (Apple Farm), who make an incredible pomegranate jelly, taught me to halve the poms and use an old-fashioned citrus juicer (the kind with the lever) to juice them. I've found using a food processor or an electric juicer releases too much bitterness from the center of the seed. I imagine the food mill wouldn't release that bitterness. On the other end of the spectrum, I've found the juice from POM to be too filtered and refined, nearly indistinguishable from grape juice.
Brett,
The food mill was something I stumbled on a while back. It had the best effort to yield ratio (I think a mortar and pestle got more yield, but with lots more effort). It doesn't slice through the seeds the way a food processor does, and I imagine that, as with grapes, that's where the bitterness would be.
I like the old-fashioned citrus juicer idea (certainly the Apple Farm folks would know).
How can I make pomegranate vinegar? I want to be able to seal it in bottles to keep for gifts, too.
I'm thinking 100% juice mixed with quality vinegar and a touch of sugar, set aside for 2 weeks. Then boil 15 minutes and seal in bottles. Anyone have experience with this?