How to Juice a Pomegranate with a Juicer

Pomegranate juice is one of those things that costs a fortune in a bottle and almost nothing if you have a tree, a neighbor with a tree, or a good produce aisle in autumn. The catch has always been the mess. Seeding a pomegranate by hand stains your shirt, your cutting board and sometimes your grout.

A press changes the arithmetic. Instead of picking out arils one by one, you halve the fruit and apply pressure, and the juice comes out in seconds.

What the fruit gives you

A medium pomegranate yields roughly three to four ounces of juice. That is about half a cup, which means two or three fruits for a decent glass. Oranges, by comparison, give you two to three ounces each.

Ripeness matters more than people expect. A heavy, slightly flat-sided fruit with taut skin presses better than one that feels light for its size.

Halving and pressing

You do not need to peel anything. Manual presses are built so the cut face meets the bowl and the rind stays out of the juice, which is the whole point of the design.

Cut the pomegranate straight across the middle, not through the blossom end. Set one half cut-side down in the bowl, bring the lever over, and push steadily rather than jerking at it. A slow press gets more out than a fast one.

• Rinse and dry the fruit, then cut it in half across the equator.
• Place one half cut-side down in the strainer bowl.
• Lower the lever and press down with steady weight.
• Release, check the spent half, and press a second time if it still feels wet.
• Pour off the juice before it climbs near the rim of the collection cup.

That second press is worth doing. Pomegranate flesh is softer than orange flesh, so the first pass often leaves a little behind in the pith pockets.

Bitterness and how to avoid it

Some people press pomegranates whole or in quarters and end up with juice that tastes astringent. That bitterness comes from the white membrane and the skin, not the seeds. Crushing the rind too hard pushes those compounds into the cup.

Halving and pressing with moderate, even force keeps the contact mostly on the arils. If a batch tastes sharp, back off the pressure next time rather than squeezing harder.

Choosing a pomegranate juicer

Manual lever presses handle pomegranates well precisely because the fruit is soft. Owners of cast iron presses report near-complete extraction in one or two pulls, with the spent halves coming out almost dry. Lower-priced manual models land around 85 to 95 percent yield, which is still plenty for home use.

Electric centrifugal juicers are the other route. They move faster through volume and suit a household juicing for several people, though they produce somewhat wetter pulp and need you to stop and empty the pulp bin partway through a long session.

Two fruits on a Saturday calls for a different press than twenty fruits at the end of harvest, and once you know which one you are, the next question is physical: lever length, base weight, and how much counter space you're willing to give up. That's where this comparison between manual and electric models earns its keep. A long lever arm reduces the force your arms supply. A heavy cast iron base with a suction cup or rubber pads keeps the unit from skating on a wet counter, which matters a great deal with juice this prone to staining.

Strainers, filters, cleanup

Most manual presses use a stainless steel strainer bowl with holes that hold back seeds and large pulp. A finer mesh filter gives clearer juice but traps more liquid in the pulp, so you trade yield for clarity.

Rinse the parts right after pressing. Pomegranate juice dries into a stubborn film, and removable stainless components on many presses go into a standard dishwasher anyway. Dry cast iron properly: the frame resists corrosion, but the underside finish on some units will rust if you leave it sitting wet.

Moving parts on a lever press benefit from a light oiling now and then. Cared for that way, heavy manual presses commonly run ten to twenty years, with the stainless contact pieces wearing before the frame does.

Who it pays off for

If you have a producing tree, a standing order of winter pomegranates, or a habit of mixing grenadine and cocktails at home, a press pays for itself quickly and spares you an hour of aril picking each time. For someone who juices a pomegranate twice a year, hands and a bowl of water still work fine.