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 by Nantana Nagavajara
 January, 2006

In Thai “ Tub Tim” is the word we call pomegranate, the same word as we call Ruby, one of the precious stones. The resemblance of the bloody pink seeds and the fine cut stone is where the name was derived.

It is believed that pomegranate is the symbol of fertility as the fruit bears fully loaded seeds. The seeds of local pomegranate are hard and they are unpleasant to eat or swallow, unlike the Spanish variety of which the seeds can be taken whole.

Without proper “opening” of the fruit, one ( actually many) may end up disliking it and lose the chance to experience what we can call the real Gem of all the fruits.

    December & January are the time when imported pomegranates rule our fruit market. I once watched a TV show of a famous British culinary star demonstrating how to work with pomegranate. She cut the fruit in half and used the handle of the knife knocking the outer part and let the seeds fall out.

The seeds did not come out as easily as the way I was taught to do, in fact my technique is so…o
• simple … just a knife is required ( and your two hands, of course)
• easy …with only proper cuts on the right spots
• effective…all the seeds will be revealed inviting you to give them a good grab..
• and with a little twist of your knuckle and your wrist, the plump juicy seeds will fall out.

To check if there is any other technique or at least the one that is alike, I then looked up in many of the cooking technique books, but nothing was interesting.. pomegranate still looks as troublesome as it is (mistakenly) known.

And that is when I come to believe that I should put this on a demo in an article for our cooking sheet.

I do hope that the following step by step guide will excite you and become an urge for you to pick up a pomegranate and bring it home next time you spot it at your supermarket.

Let’s start our journey.
Enjoy!
 
 


Pomegranate’s blossom end ( the crown) indicates how many sections the seeds inside are split into. In this picture, the crown has 7 parts. In order to have cuts that open up all the sections, the fruit is to be segmented into seven parts…but how?
First, cut the blossom end open. Be careful not to cut deep to the seeds, just make a round shallow cut and lift to open. When lifting the cut part up, use the tip of the knife to cut lose the core. The core is soft, it is easy to pull the whole thing out in one shot. Notice that the seeds are still whole, not cut. Look closely, there are seven sections as indicated by the points of the crown. Second, follow the line of white streaks, one at a time; Cut down from top to bottom just deep enough to cut through the peel, careful not to cut to the seeds.
This is what it looks like after the pomegranate is vertically cut from top to bottom for all the sections. Gently pull out each section, the fruit will be easily popped out. At this stage, just get the feeling that each section is freed from each other. Then, work with each section by pulling gently. Each section is now almost totally released from each other.
Taking the core out. Taking the membrane out, all out! Ta-dah! Exactly 7 sections ! Not a single seed was cut. All the seeds can now be pushed out gently with a little stroke of your thump.