Pomegranates
So, by the largess of my dear chef-friend khromat and her backyard garden, I was given pomegranates.
A lot of pomegranates (as in about three dozen). I'd said I liked them.
This was going to require a fair bit of juicing, however.
Prep for this was pretty simple, though.
A large bowl for the seeds, a good sharp knife and a cutting board, and a spoon in the event scraping was needed... and the one thing not shown here--lots and lots of paper towels. This is a messy procedure, one that will get pomegranate juice everywhere.
A quick test cut showed them to be both juicy and pretty well-packed with seeds.
This was going to have really good yield.
Did I mention this was a messy procedure before?
The easiest way to remove most of the seeds is to cut the pomegranate in half, squeeze it in the same manner as a lemon and then run your finger along the inside both to pick away the larger pieces of pith and dislodge the seeds. Messy, but worth it.
Three dozen pomegranates later...
As it is, the very process of scooping the seeds out has yielded a fair bit of juice. After just pouring off the initial juice in the bowl, I then took a piece of cheesecloth, scooped up a handful of seeds, and then squeezed them out from within the cloth to keep everything but the juice. The spent seeds were discarded into a second bowl.
From that big bowl of seeds we get three quarts of juice, along with the spent seeds.
(Does anyone know if there's a good use for the spent pomegranate seeds?)
Initial tasting shows that the hand-squeezed juice is far less bitter than store-bought pomegranate juice, most likely due to not grinding and squeezing the seeds to the point of bursting the seeds. The next time I do this, however, I think I will strain off the initial juice, then fill the bowl with water and try to float the pith to be strained off, just to see if squeezing the seeds with some of the pith has an affect on the juice's flavor.
One neat side-effect is that the cheesecloth got this wonderful color to it.
I can see people dyeing thread and cloth with this. Heck, I might try it myself.
Now, what to do with three quarts of pomegranate juice...
A lot of pomegranates (as in about three dozen). I'd said I liked them.
This was going to require a fair bit of juicing, however.
Prep for this was pretty simple, though.
A large bowl for the seeds, a good sharp knife and a cutting board, and a spoon in the event scraping was needed... and the one thing not shown here--lots and lots of paper towels. This is a messy procedure, one that will get pomegranate juice everywhere.
A quick test cut showed them to be both juicy and pretty well-packed with seeds.
This was going to have really good yield.
Did I mention this was a messy procedure before?
The easiest way to remove most of the seeds is to cut the pomegranate in half, squeeze it in the same manner as a lemon and then run your finger along the inside both to pick away the larger pieces of pith and dislodge the seeds. Messy, but worth it.
Three dozen pomegranates later...
As it is, the very process of scooping the seeds out has yielded a fair bit of juice. After just pouring off the initial juice in the bowl, I then took a piece of cheesecloth, scooped up a handful of seeds, and then squeezed them out from within the cloth to keep everything but the juice. The spent seeds were discarded into a second bowl.
From that big bowl of seeds we get three quarts of juice, along with the spent seeds.
(Does anyone know if there's a good use for the spent pomegranate seeds?)
Initial tasting shows that the hand-squeezed juice is far less bitter than store-bought pomegranate juice, most likely due to not grinding and squeezing the seeds to the point of bursting the seeds. The next time I do this, however, I think I will strain off the initial juice, then fill the bowl with water and try to float the pith to be strained off, just to see if squeezing the seeds with some of the pith has an affect on the juice's flavor.
One neat side-effect is that the cheesecloth got this wonderful color to it.
I can see people dyeing thread and cloth with this. Heck, I might try it myself.
Now, what to do with three quarts of pomegranate juice...