There's More Than One Way to Deseed a Pomegranate

My mother would hand-pick the largest, least-flawed pomegranates at the market and artistically arrange them on a platter or bowl during the holidays. Sometimes she would spray paint them silver and gold, and dust them with glitter. Elegant. Occasionally, she would let us eat one, when they were no longer needed for her centerpiece. To eat a pomegranate was to get messy with the likelihood of irreparably staining our clothes.

Had my mother known that there is more than one way to deseed a pomegranate, we would have had enjoyed the pleasure of eating them over and over again through the years, and I would have passed that delight on to my children. Learned behavior is fascinating. When I was raising my girls, I too set pomegranates in a bowl on our table, and gave them one to share between them at Christmas time. I remember briskly scrubbing their fingers with a nail brush to remove the stains and furiously scrubbing stains on their clothes with spot-remover... just like my mother.

How wonderful to be enlightened that there is indeed a faster, easier way to deseed a pomegranate with the least amount of mess!

Elegant! The Globtrotter Diaries shares a slight various on this technique.

Pomegranate.org provides a menu of recipes that will expand your experience beyond popping those little seeds one by one in your mouth to tempt your taste buds:

Pomegranate Grenadine

3 cups pomegranate juice

Take 3 cups pomegranate juice and boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally and skim the froth, until the juice is reduced to 1 cup. Cool, bottle and store in the refrigerator. Can be added to soups, sauces, and marinades for a rich, tart flavor.

In our family, we use the grenadine syrup to drizzle over half a grapefruit per person, and place them under the broiler in the oven until heated through for a delicious side of fruit with our breakfast. A pat of butter and brown sugar are other options for an even sweeter, buttery flavor. Serve in bowls with serrated grapefruit spoons. Enjoy!