You say they’re delicious, but too big a pain to peel, etc.? Not necessarily.
Here’s what I did (from directions in some cookbook).
Use a serrated knife to cut off the blossom. Use the same knife to score the rind so that you have about six sections to contend with. (Score a bit deeper than you might be inclined, especially if you’re stupid or a foreigner in your own kitchen.)
Put the PeeGee in cold water and let it soak for 5 minutes or so. Keeping le pomme de granite under water, break off the sections and separate the seeds from the rind and intestines.
The seeds will sink, the other stuff floats. Splash that other stuff out as best you can. (Or call in your pool boy to skim off the algae, other stuff, plus the brain tissue, and intestines.) Pour what’s left into a colander or sieve (whichever is easier to spell).
Pick away any remaining detritus. Let the seeds dry on a paper towel.
Pour seeds into a bowl, get a spoon and enjoy. As I will right this minute!!!
Get a spoon? Wait, are you telling me you eat the seeds? Because damn, they’re hard. I love pomegranates, but I can’t eat the seeds. I once tried a “seedless” variety once. It was a dirty, filthy lie.
Damn you! Why didn’t you respond in my pomegranate jelly thread? I burned out a Cuisinart juicer! Oh well, your technique is probably too labor intensive for the 25 pounds I went through. I’ve got two pomegranates left, though and I am using your technique! I wonder how my second batch of pomegranate jello shots have come out. The first batch was not sweet enough and wouldn’t come out of my designer silicone ice cube trays.
Oh, I love pomegranates. I have two at home, and have always gone through the labour-intensive way of doing it. I’ll try your method now.
ETA: I luuuuuuuuuuurve the seeds. Crunch, crunch. Yum!
I just stab them in the side and then put the husk up to my mouth to squeeze the juice out. Classless, maybe, but tasty, easy, and decidedly un-messy.
I don’t remember Aphrodite helping Hades kidnap Persephone. Or were you hiding behind a tree and witness it or something? 'cause, if so, you got off lucky considering what she did to those unfortunate nymphs.
(The story I heard goes that Hades resisted all romantic/sexual impulses for the longest time; Cupid, having been more or less dared to do his worst, shot an arrow straight through him at the moment he saw Persephone, and so Hades up and carted her off to the underworld. So not technically Aphrodite’s fault, but Cupid’s. :))
Huh. The Rape of Persephone is one of my two favorite myths (the other is Orpheus and Eurydice) and I’ve never read any versions that involved Aphrodite or Eros. Neat.
I’m sorry, but this strikes me as intensely unnecessary. Yank that bitch in half, and start scraping out seeds, munch, swallow juice, spit seeds out like you’re a minigun. I’ve never understood how pomegranates are supposed to be a pain in the ass to eat.
I developed my love of pomegranates as a child, when, during the holidays, my mom could keep my sister and me out of her hair for long stretches of time by giving us each a half a pomegranate, a fancy little hors d’oeuvre pick, and a lecture about NOT getting the juice on our clothes. We’d happily sit and tease out one seed at a time.
I have developed a completely labor-free method of eating pomegranates. Same method I use for peeling oranges. Hand them to my husband. Wait for them to be handed back. Yum! (I’m so lazy )
I don’t mind the labour-intensive method of slowly peeling, then teasing the sections apart. For some reason, though, the pith turns my fingers yellow.
We’ve gone through (most) of one already. I doubt we’ll eat the last few seeds… we left them out and they look kind of nasty now. Into the trash tomorrow!
It didn’t take too long to just peel this one apart, though it was a little bit messy. SOOO worth it though; it was a really, really good pomegranate!
We might buy another one soon… we have a bad habit of buying them and never getting around to eating them, but the last one was so good, I just might give in!
Fuckin’ A! I went to the supermarket last night and picked up my first pom of the season. Hot damn, it was good. I ate half the seeds last night and am eating the other half now.
I also bought one before work today and gave it to the owner/chef of the restaurant I work at. He is an Israeli guy, a huge guy with a shaved head and an earring who is easily the scariest-looking man I’ve ever met. I’ve been working there for 5 months or so but he just got back from overseas last week and so I’m just now getting to know him. I read that pomegranates are popular in the Middle East so I thought I would give him one, partially to try to endear myself to him and partially to see if he would try to cook something with it.
He was quite pleased and said, “let me see what I can do with that” and immediately removed all the seeds. Some minutes later he was sauteeing a mixture of pomegranate seeds, onions, and mint, and he served it along with a lamb shank as a surprise treat for a customer, who was extremely pleased.
I remember reading somewhere that you’re not supposed to eat pomegranates if you’re taking Xanax. I am currently taking Xanax so I tried very hard to find some information on that and could not. Searches combining “pomegranate” with “xanax,” “benzodiazapine” or “interaction” have yielded nothing except for a few obscure references to some kind of high cholesterol or blood pressure medication. Is there any truth to this? Why did I think this was true? I can’t for the life of me remember.
Try the method I described (minus the idiocy). My wife read the directions to me as I did it — replete with the underwater stuff. Honest. It’s not at all messy and gets the job done.
I knocked off two PGs in that one session, and after posting, I immediately ate all the seeds. Wife doesn’t like 'em.
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