To All,
H Mart's latest surprise is a pomelo (accent on the first syllable, though there is controversy). The pomelo's distinction is that it is the largest citrus fruit, and this is memorialized in its scientific name, Citrus maxima. The very largest pomelos, at 25 pounds and nearly the size of a basketball, are in the range of jack fruit. My pomelo was about as big as a cantaloupe though somewhat flattened. It weighed 1.97 pounds with a diameter of six inches. The peel weighed 0.56 pounds, so as a first approximation my pomelo delivered 1.41 pounds of edible fruit. It cost $3.49.
It is believed that the grapefuit is a hybrid of a pomelo and an orange. The tangelo is a hybrid between a pomelo and a tangerine. Theories about its name abound, with a leading theory being that it comes from pome (apple) + melon. It is native to Southeast Asia. It grows wild on river banks in Fiji.
To learn how to attack this over-sized fruit, I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4K2P-fO2eM In short, you approach this monster exactly as you would an orange. You quarter it and then remove the sections of peel. You are left with enough peel to fill a trash bag. If you want to save a trash bag, you can candy the peel. I learned from this video that the pomelo is perfectly in tune with modern times since it is over-packaged with three layers of wrapping. First, the outer layer is a thick peel; the peel of my pomelo was about a quarter of an inch thick. Second, the middle layer is a substantial layer of soft white padding much like an orange but considerably thicker. Third, each wedge of fruit has its own, individual Saran-wrap jacket. All three of these wrappings are sour and to be avoided.
The following pictures record my tussle with a pomelo.
- The pomelo on my cutting board.
- The pomelo with its ends cut off. Because of the size, I elected to sixth mine instead of quartering it.
- The pomelo sixthed. I then peeled back the wedges of peel. This took considerable work as you had to force your fingers in and really put some elbow grease behind it. This fruit resists you.
- The pomelo with the wedges of the peel pulled back. Arty, no? The next step was to totally remove the peel. This was easy, and for the most part the white layer in the middle came off with the peel.
- The peeled pomelo beside the various discarded pieces of the peel. Now it is time to separate the wedges of the fruit and to remove the inner wrapper from each wedge. Every step is a trial. Unlike an orange, the wedges do not easily separate; in fact, it is not even easy to locate the boundaries between the wedges. You are reduced to ripping the pomelo apart with no regard for the location of the wedge boundaries. I discovered, to my surprise, that this actually is a pretty good approach. Separating the inner wrapper and the fruit is difficult; this is easier if the wedge is already ripped down the middle since the fruit is exposed, and you can then dig the fruit out a piece at a time. Expect your work area to be covered with the individual shards of pulp, which are tear-drop shaped and a little larger than a grain of rice. Removing the entire inner wrapper to produce a pristine wedge of fruit is a pipe dream. One of the pictures above shows neat wedges of peeled pomelo. Maybe you can achieve this if you are a professional pomelo chef with ten years of experience (see below), but don't be misled by these pictures and think that you will be able to prepare a neat pomelo platter to take to a church social. My pomelo came out in bits and pieces, most of them pretty small.
- The carnage after I had eaten about a third of the pomelo. In the front is the discarded inner wrapper. In the back are the wedges of pomelo I have not yet addressed. In the middle is the intermediate white wrapper that I removed from one wedge.
Be warned that eating a pomelo is a violent process that requires a lot of tearing and ripping. Not only do you need to apply force, but you need to apply it at the right place and at the right angle. Of all the activities I have engaged in, the one that most resembles eating a pomelo is tearing a phone book in two. The practical implication is that you should not attempt to eat a pomelo when you are feeling mellow. Wait until you are in an aggressive mood.
My pomelo had no seeds. Moreover, while juicy, the juice was well-contained in the wedge and did not add to the mess.
To see a professional pomelo peeler at work in Thailand, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzovjV-EpoA
All three of the wrappers, all of which are sour, can be used to make marmalade. This is the third time (along with sour orange and quince) that we have encountered the paradox that sour ingredients are used to make sweet jellies and marmalades. Perhaps one of my readers will be able to resolve this paradox.
As for taste, the pomelo has the pleasing flavor of grapefruit without the grapefruit's sourness. Since I don't eat grapefruit because of its sourness, the pomelo's taste makes a big hit with me.
The verdict: The upside is that the pomelo has a very pleasing taste while the downside is that extracting the fruit from its three layers of wrapping is a messy labor. Moreover, it you make a small error and eat a sliver of any of the three wrappers, you are assailed by the most unpleasant sourness. In short, despite the pleasing taste, it's such a time-consuming hassle to deal with the pomelo's three-layer construction that the pomelo can serve as nothing more than the occasional novelty. Your search for a new everyday fruit must continue.
The color, taste, juiciness, seediness, and other characteristics of a pomelo are said by the Internet experts to be extremely variable, so you should not place undue weight on the characteristics of my particular pomelo.
The pictures below give you a sense of the pomelo tree and flower. You see some pretty big pomelos.
According to the Gourmet Sleuth, http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/articles/detail/pomelo, practitioners of the ancient Chinese art of healing, "...boil the skins and leaves of the pomelo to prepare a ceremonial bath to 'ritually cleanse a person and repel evil.' "
Like most fruits, pomelo has been incorporated into alcoholic beverages. There is a wine that features pomelo. Moreover, http://twosheetsinthewind.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/forbidden-fruit-the-obsession-begins/ and http://thehistorians-jaredbrown.blogspot.com/2014/06/lost-ingredients-forbidden-fruit.html tell the story of the legendary liqueur, Forbidden Fruit, whose recipe was lost decades ago. Historians of alcohol have recently attempted to reconstruct the recipe, with one camp claiming that pomelo is the mystery ingredient. Those interested in the details of this controversy can use the sites given above as a starting point. (Should "historians of alcohol" be replaced with "archeologists of alcohol?" I trust that this terminology will stabilize as the field matures.)
As for other pomelo products, Fanta has a pomelo soda, and you can go to http://pomelofruit.com/ to see a variety of products made from pomelo and other fruits. (You can tell that the words in the web site of this Chinese company were not written by a native speaker of English.)
Yogakat http://yogakat.hubpages.com/hub/pomelohealthydiet reports that chewing pomelo rind slowly is a cure for hangovers. It also points out that you can freeze the juice in ice cube trays and then use the cubes to add a citrus zest to your drinks and dishes.
Here are some pictures that show what artists have done with the pomelo. (Also see appendix.)
In case the pomelo has won your heart, you can find 200 pomelo videos collected at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4K2P-fO2eM&list=PL-AIyYgUCp3a-cwf3j5A7w6TyGzwvXXk7
Here's your party tip. If your guests become inebriated and your party is on the verge of getting out of hand, declare a game of Find the Pomelo. This is a game that is so easy that even drunks can play it. (Only Find the Jack Fruit is easier.) After you hide the pomelo, your guests will be galvanized into activity, and soon you will hear cries of exultation as they locate the pomelo. Take advantage of this temporary high to hand them their coats and thank them for coming. Then, relaxing alone in your home, enjoy a snifter of Forbidden Fruit and reflect with satisfaction on how Find the Pomelo allowed you to dodge a bullet and save your party when it threatened to spin out of control.
Rick
Appendix: The Acme of Pomelo Art
At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59A1r2-DgI you will find a video of a master pomelo carver from Thailand. Here are some screenshots as his carving progresses.
