Juicing pomegranates

[alanmercieca]

Here are different ways that you can juice pomegranates easily, yet I have not tried most of them myself yet. Feel free to give your own juicing advice.

A) Using a manual citrus press (disadvantages are, the area that the fruit is pressed could be bigger, some of these have dangerous handles that can slam down and injure someone yet some of them have a handle lock)





Based upon reviews and product description these ones seem to be the best


Manual presses with a wide fruit pressing area (a 5 inch diameter):

Zulay is overall the best, best built, and best warranty 'a limited lifetime warranty', I got the Extra Tall version and I think that it's worth the extra money, you are paying for a longer bar, the extra height means it's much easier to fit the cups, the only height increase is in the cup area. It's a great citrus press, so happy that I got it!

01A) Black Zulay Kitchen Professional Citrus Juicer https://www.zulaykitchen.com/products/z ... fa7c&_ss=r
01B) Black Zulay Extra Tall Kitchen Professional Citrus Juicer https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

To see a video of the taller version being used go to the link in 01B, right above this. Here is a video of the shorter version of this citrus press juicing oranges.



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Here is another citrus press. Overall the 'Cilio Commercial Grade Pomegranate and Citrus Press Juicer' is a great juicer, It's about as tall as the Black Zulay Extra Tall, yet it has less room for a cup, since the cup has to be raised by the base, rather than the cup sitting on the table or the counter during fruit pressing. Like the Black Zulay Extra Tall the squeezing area is 5 whole inches, that is wider than most citrus presses.

This citrus press does have some disadvantages over the Black Zulay Extra Tall, it has a limited one year warranty, this press is wider than the Black Zulay Extra Tall so if you are limited in space that could be a disadvantage, based upon the reviews the fruit pressing area is made of cheap parts, it most likely works great for most citrus if you clean the press area well to remove the acidity, yet pomegranates are harder to squeeze and are said to break the fruit pressing parts, as well as it does not squeeze out the juice of pomegranates as well as the Black Zulay Extra Tall. It squeezes larger yet thinner skinned citrus best, does not work so well with smaller citrus or with thick peeled citrus.

The rest of the press seems to be built very strong. It's a shame because based upon what I am reading, the press would be almost as good as the Black Zulay Extra Tall, if the pressing area was made of better parts.

Another problem with this brand's presses is the confusion of the names of the presses, one of the presses is called professional, and one of the presses is called commercial, the commercial one is the best one, to add to the confusion some people who sell the professional version act like it's the commercial version, or they don't say which one it is, most likely they are confused too, or they don't realize that there is more than one version.

02a) 'Cilio Commercial Grade Pomegranate and Citrus Press Juicer' in Black https://smile.amazon.com/Cilio-Press-Ju ... 00GR0O76U/
02b) 'Cilio Commercial Grade Pomegranate and Citrus Press Juicer' in Black https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tableto ... g1980.html

02c) 'Cilio Commercial Grade Pomegranate and Citrus Press Juicer' in red https://smile.amazon.com/Cilio-Professi ... B076WZ9D23

Here is a video of it being used


Keep in mind that the citrus press in the video is not the same press that she is linking too for purchase, the one that she is linking to is the lower quality professional model, yet the one in the video is the one that I am providing links for.

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Manual presses with a narrow fruit pressing area (About 3 inch diameter):

01) Weston West Pro Citrus Juicer https://smile.amazon.com/Weston-66431-C ... 079Z8M85J/ and https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tableto ... m1003.html
02) VIGIND-Manual-Commerical-Pomegranate-Squeezer https://smile.amazon.com/VIGIND-Manual- ... op?ie=UTF8
03) Gray Imperial Home Citrus Juicer https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tableto ... d2045.html

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Here is a video of the 'VIVOHOME Heavy Duty Commercial Manual Hand Press' being used to press navel oranges.


04) VIVOHOME Heavy Duty Commercial Manual Hand Press https://smile.amazon.com/VIVOHOME-Comme ... 07R5JHZXF/

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B) Using an electric citrus press (disadvantages are, a good manual citrus press lasts way longer than one of these and costs less to buy) (advantages are, the area that the fruit is pressed is sizable, all the flesh is cleaned out)




C) Citrus hand squeezer, this kind (disadvantages, requires way more cutting, is much slower, requires lots of help and like 3 or more of these to juice a lot of fruit) (main advantage is lower price) https://smile.amazon.com/ZEYUAN-Squeeze ... 07SSYVGR4/

[greenfig]

Alan,

Thanks for a post!
I was looking for similar devices to buy but it turned out that my poms are very popular to eat fresh this year (Desertnyi and Parfianka), there will be hardly any left for juice. But next year I may have enough extras and this thread will be handy as a reference.

[alanmercieca]

Alan,

Thanks for a post!
I was looking for similar devices to buy but it turned out that my poms are very popular to eat fresh this year (Desertnyi and Parfianka), there will be hardly any left for juice. But next year I may have enough extras and this thread will be handy as a reference.

You are welcome.

I think that once there are enough fruit on your bushes they'd grow sick of the seeds by the end of the season regardless of how soft they are, so juicing would be a welcome thing, I wonder how pomegranate fruit rolls would be. I eventually want to make pomegranate jam! Next year should be our first year with pomegranates from our own bushes. Considering how expensive it can be to buy the fruit that will be such a great thing, that and the better + different varieties than what's in the stores.

[greenfig]

We actually like the seeds! They have the texture and taste of the sunflower seeds.
I was thinking this year to make a spicy pom jam. This recipe is close to what I want to do:
https://bowl-me-over.com/bam-bam-pomegranate-jam/

[alanmercieca]

We actually like the seeds! They have the texture and taste of the sunflower seeds.
I was thinking this year to make a spicy pom jam. This recipe is close to what I want to do:
https://bowl-me-over.com/bam-bam-pomegranate-jam/

Interesting, I knew that the seeds were soft, yet like sunflower seeds, that sounds interesting!

I could picture that recipe being even better with a good home made chili seasoning, in place of the chili powder and flakes.

[greenfig]

We actually like the seeds! They have the texture and taste of the sunflower seeds.
I was thinking this year to make a spicy pom jam. This recipe is close to what I want to do:
https://bowl-me-over.com/bam-bam-pomegranate-jam/

Interesting, I knew that the seeds were soft, yet like sunflower seeds, that sounds interesting!

I could picture that recipe being even better with a good home made chili seasoning, in place of the chili powder and flakes.

I agree with your recipe suggestion but I want to start with the original one to see what actually is that and then improvise

The seeds are tiny and soft, this makes the arils very juicy since there is more room for the juice there.

[alanmercieca]

I finally ordered a manual citrus press late September, it arrived the first week of October, and this year I had pomegranates on my own bushes for the first time, 10 of them, I juiced 8 of the pomegranates with the press, as well as lots of lemons, it pressed the lemons surprisingly easily regardless of the size of the Improved Meyer lemons that I pressed, all the pomegranate fruit that I pressed was the 'Salavatski' variety, the seeds were very hard, and their skins were very hard, it was unusually hard to score the fruit which seems common for pomegranate fruit here. The skin crumbles a tiny bit as it's cut, I scored each fruit and tore each fruit in to two pieces, then I put each half on to the fruit pressing area, I pulled down the handle to press it. It was not as easy to press the pomegranates as it was the lemons because of the hardness of the peel and of the seeds, yet with practice it got easier to press the fruit, still easy/fast if you cut the fruit the thinnest way so that there is less thickness to press, what direction to cut it will depend on if it's a tall fruit or a wide fruit.

The pomegranates certainly were not as big as the biggest Wonderful brand pomegranates, so as you can see the fruit did not fill up much of the fruit pressing area

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the thicker the fruit winds up being the harder it is to press the fruit, yet this citrus press is very powerful and will always be much easier than using a hand held citrus press, so even if the fruit being pressed is very thick it should be able to press it. This press will create better juice than any other type of juicer, because if the bitter parts of the fruit get in to the juice, then there is no getting the awful taste out, the bitter taste from other types of juicers comes from the fibre in the seeds, which you could never strain out or fully remove, I sure have tried when using other juicing methods, the bitter taste can also come from the endocarp and the mesocarp, which is also impossible to remove the taste once it's in the juice. This press has not put any biter taste in to the pomegranate juice that it presses as long as you don't double press the same side of a fruit, rarely this press will press one side of a pomegranate way better than the other, if that happens readjust the fruit accordingly.

As you can see these 4 peels from 4 'Salavatski' fruit, this juicer does not leave much juice behind.

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Some tips:
01) I find that using a 'two cup' liquid measuring cup makes it easier to pour the juice in to other cups without spilling because of the pour spout, I have not tried anything bigger yet.
02) Press down on the press at the base or at the top of the bar, so that it will not tip, it does not tip easily like some of the other citrus presses, yet it does tip, it has rubber feet yet no suction cups.
03) Each time that you put the 'pressing cone' in to the 'pressing funnel cup' spin it around and lift on the cone, if it stays down when lifting then it should be right, then press the handle down to test, if the handle easily goes down all they way then it's right, yet if you have to force it down then it's not inserted right and that would shorten the life of the pressing area eventually.
04) After you are done juicing strain the juice, if any seeds are in the juice.
05) After you are done juicing swap the measuring cup for a mug to prevent a mess from dripping on to the table or counter while removing the reamer like 'pressing cone' and removing the 'pressing funnel cup' from the pressing area to rinse them in the sink and while cleaning the 'pressing squeezer'.
06) Wet a paper towel and scrub the underside of the 'pressing squeezer' with that wet paper making sure to remove all excess stuck on stuff.
Then take a dry paper towel and scrub the 'pressing squeezer' dry with it. Use that same paper towel to scrub where the 'funnel cup was resting. See photo of the 'pressing squeezer'

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Here is a photo of the juicer

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[greenfig]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! @alanmercieca
How does your juice compare to the store bought Pom juice?
I may buy one as well.

[alanmercieca]

It varies a lot based upon variety, how ripe the fruit was when picked, and what part of the growing season the fruit ripened just like it varies when consumed fresh, I found that the last batch of the 'Salavatski' was the best, and for that reason that last batch made the best juice. that last batch had a strong taste of cranberry and citrus, no particular kind of citrus, just citrus in general, and it was wine like with a little bit of acidity/a little bit of sourness. I personally think that it's better than any store bought juice with any of the fruit that I pressed with it, whether or not you agree with me depends on what you are expecting. Also there are different kinds of store bought pomegranate juice, many are too sour and bitter for me, it's come to the point that if I buy pomegranate juice I get juice that is imported from Turkey, Aldi has one, I beleive that it's $4 something and it's good, there is also a pomegranate nectar that is imported from Turkey that I find at Compare Foods that is also good. The juice that I buy from Aldi is the closest to what I pressed myself from the last batch of fruit yet still not as good as what I pressed. The fruit that I pressed before the last batch was not as flavorful, and was more sour than I'd prefer.

[greenfig]

@alanmercieca thank you !
We have Aldi not far away but I have never been there .
I will stop by and check out what they offer.