To All,
Six months ago Mei-Mei sent around a video, which many of you have watched, on how to de-seed a pomegranate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=084ABt9q1n0. In essence, this video says to cut the pomegranate in half and then beat the outside of each half with a wooden spoon to knock out the seeds. I had never eaten a pomegranate, so this video constituted my sole knowledge of pomegranates. Wanting to put this knowledge into practice, I picked up a pomegranate at Market Basket.
Ready to prepare my pomegranate, I rewatched the video. This lead me to a number of other pomegranate videos. The first thing I learned from this video review is that you eat the seeds. I had gotten the idea that you wanted to remove the seeds so you could eat the pulp. Wrong. I guess I was influenced by Greek mythology, in which the story of Persephone had taught me that bad things happen if you eat a pomegranate seed. The sure sign of a a pomegranate neophyte is that you throw away the seeds after carefully removing them. (I had seen pomegranate seeds for sale at Trader Joe's and had been wondering why they were selling the bad part of the pomegranate.)
Next, I learned that the dark side of pomegranates is that they cause a fearsome stain. The video stars go into convulsions as they warn you about these stains. If you do get stained, Show Me the Curry recommends that you treat it by pouring boiling water on the fabric. Anticipating staining, I changed into my pink shirt, which was not only the color of pomegranate juice but also pre-stained from ice cream that I had dripped on it while visiting Mark and Robin..
Once I got past these areas of agreement, I learned that controversy rages on YouTube over how to de-seed a pomegranate. Every video star is adamant that his/her technique is the technique. The Produce Guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14E-zsg5w0I&src_vid=wiZDK1MEReM&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_271142 wanted me to submerge the pomegranate in a mixing bowl full of water and de-seed it by hand under the water. This method was designed to contain the stain. I infer that the Produce Guy once had a bad experience with a pomegranate stain. Others hooted at the complexity of this method. If you are a student of pomegranate science, you can quickly watch a lot of these videos. My favorite video came from Show Me the Curry in India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUsfw-KppCU. This featured a video-in-a-video that showed a professional pomegranate de-seeder at work in a Bangkok market. His work was like ballet.
For my first time, I decided not to follow Mei-Mei's video but rather a hybrid of some of the others. The essence is to cut off the ends. Make half-a dozen scores from end to end. Break the pomegranate apart along the scores. Hold each segment over a bowl and beat the back of it with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall into the bowl, no muss, no fuss. At least, that's how it happens according to the videos.
Here's what really happens. One video says that you are supposed to score the pomegranate along the ridges since this is where it naturally breaks into segments. After careful visual and tactile inspection of my pomegranate, I could find no ridges, despite the assurance that they would be obvious. No problem. Another video says that once you have cut the ends off, you will be able to see the membranes that run from end to end and divide the pomegranate into sections, and you score along the membranes; see attached picture. Again, I could see no membranes. Consequently, I scored my pomegranate at random and found that it broke apart easily. No problem. Next I beat the outer side of each segment with a metal tablespoon. I found that I needed more mass, so I switched to a heavy duty wooden spoon and beat some more. Very few seeds were jarred loosed. Becoming impatient, I really let loose and swung the wooden spoon with considerable force. This did the trick. Seeds started raining down into the bowl. I only had to pick a few out with my fingers. Success.
I am now sitting in front of a bowl of freshly liberated pomegranate seeds. I am surprised at how many seeds there are. This fruit really produces. The seeds look like a cross between two childhood candies: red hots and candy corn; see attached picture. I am about to have my first taste ever. The spoon is digging into the pile of seeds. The spoon is approaching my mouth. The spoon is passing through my lips. The spoon is unloading the seeds in my mouth. I am chewing. The sensation is ... delightful. Pleasing, crunchy texture, tart, refreshing taste. I have just finished my first pomegranate and can't wait for more.
Verdict: This fruit is worth it. Plus, it's fun to prepare.
Mission accomplished. No new stains. (There is a small stain on my cutting board, but I am leaving it as a badge of honor.)
Here is your party idea. Give each of your guests a pomegranate. Then show a number of Internet videos. Each guest picks a de-seeding technique from a video. Once a champion for each technique has been chosen, everyone de-seeds his/her pomegranates using the chosen technique. Everyone eats their pomegranate seeds while the judges score the contestants on speed, precision (i.e., a perfect score is all seeds and no pulp), and staining. The winner is worshiped by everyone else for three days.
Rick
P.S. I wonder what instrument the ancient Greeks used to de-seed pomegranates. Whatever it is, I would like to have one for my envisioned collection. I would put it beside my Roman garlic press.
